


Happy Virus

by zeerogue



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: ChanHun, SeYeol, Utopia AU, dystopia au, kailu - Freeform, loooooong one shot, lukai - Freeform, virus AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-16
Updated: 2017-05-16
Packaged: 2018-11-01 10:22:55
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 1
Words: 34,644
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10919877
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zeerogue/pseuds/zeerogue
Summary: A man must make many connections in his life and those connections must start from when he is still only a son. A son can not make connections intellectually with his elders and therefore must make connections with his body before manhood. That is how it has worked for the Uppers since the city was built and Head of the Survey Division's son, Oh Sehun, knows how to make those connections better than most.





	Happy Virus

**The Happy Virus**

  
  


Even the marble bed posts (four columns sculpted after the President’s eldest daughter in the nude, enhanced breast plumped out and cupped by faceless hands most likely that of the President himself as it was well known that it was not his seed that entered his wife but a silver syringe with cultivated half miniatures of the Lower masses) could keep the bed from squeaking as the larger round form moved above Sehun. He could feel the man’s semen dribbling inside him, not yet a full on blast that made him cringe internally when the man pulled out feeling like the remnants of a too easy shit. That was what this man was to him, a shit that was having difficulties deciding if it was ready to fall out or not. The thought, though disgusting, kept a small smile of amusement on Sehun’s face that could be taken as a sign of content pleasure by the President's secretary above him that he had the pleasure of catching the eye of tonight (he thanked every deity he had read holy scriptures about in his Religious and Cult Literature class that it wasn’t the President even if his secretary was years older).

  
  


It was supposed to be an honor, but it felt more like a punishment. He was the son of an important man, the Head of Survey Division, and a close friend of the President (which had assured that Sehun’s first time had been with the President - a great honor they said - bounced up and down on his lap in his big firelit office, and he was barely twelve, an experience he didn’t want to repeat even if the President had still been somewhat attractive at the time) and so he was in the most favorable position and had more chances of connections, and those connections involved the connection of bodies as well. All the Uppers’ sons went through this, an initiation of sorts, until the age of nineteen were they underwent the transformation from being the hunted to the hunter. There were parties held once a week sometimes more. The men wore black tuxedos and their wives wore dresses as outlandish and colorful as could be imagined to add a bit of spectacle to the otherwise bland events in the ballroom. The sons and daughters wore white, an ironic contradiction from their role of the night (except for the daughters, though many of the men and women cheated in the hunting game and scouted them as well); brought to the parities from young ages upon which their first bleed or release happened. The boys always came younger, but they could hide it. The President’s son, Luhan, a close friend of Sehun’s, had kept his body’s ache for sexual pleasure a secret until the age of seventeen, posing as impotent. By the time he was caught, rumors that so many years without a release had caused him to be infertile and he was able to spend his two years of initiation only pleasing the wives that deemed they couldn’t bear out of wedlock hunting him. Now Luhan had an older wife and hunted the same boy every night.

  
  


The president’s secretary gargled a moan as he came. Sehun scrunched up his face and arched back, a hand covering his privates as he faked his release. The man grinned at him, wide and uglier in the shadow of moonlight streaming from the large french windows of Sehun’s adolescent bedroom. Sehun declined the secretary’s offer to clean him up and wrapped the sheet around his body as he stood up and made his way to the window, opening the sheer curtain, shimmering soft blue with the moonlight.

  
  


“Young Oh, come back to the bed, such delicate and refined feet shouldn’t patter against the cold floor. Your room should be carpeted,” said the secretary from the bed. “Come, I’ll warm you with a second round.”

  
  


Sehun chuckled sourly and pulled the curtain away from one half of the window and turned to his large four poster bed. He could see the secretary now naked and lying on his side, one huge roll of fat bulging out in front of him as if he was one of those large mammals with the long noses Sehun’s father kept a head of in his office. And he was old, too old now that Sehun could feel the memory of his body being rubbed with the secretary’s peeling leather like skin. He should have showed interest in one of the younger men, perhaps one that had just entered the circle. It was well known Sehun would be a good choice in helping those who were hunted become hunters, and it would have been an honor as Sehun could never leave a party without ending up in the arms of some unsavory man. The President had been at that party though, and he was much too old now to charm the parents of one of the fresh boys to hand over their just maturing sons. Sehun had felt his eyes on him all night and the memories of his first time made him want to throw up in the tiny flute he held. The secretary was an escape, he was much better than the President.

  
  


“You flatter me, Secretary Choi, but I am not in the mood for spending more time with you. I have done my deed, if you wish for more company, there are other boys still loitering in the ballroom or you could hold your wife.”

  
  


“It seems I am too unsatisfactory for your taste,” the secretary said and stood.

  
  


“Yes sir. Most are, of course.”

  
  


The secretary dressed and chuckled. “Yes, you would not be your father’s son if you were so easily satisfied. It is good you can give what is needed and still hold to your own standards. I’ll have to attempt to ask for your accompaniment another night.”

  
  


“You might run out of time, Secretary Choi, I am getting old myself.”

  
  


The secretary took one last look at Sehun and left. “It’s a shame.”

  
  


Sehun sighed and dropped the sheet. He walked out on the balcony, baring himself to the night air and leaned over the railing looking across the garden, eyes settling on the bright moon then the tall wall behind the mansion roof, the wall that separated them from the Lowers and behind it, there was another wall. Just gray walls. Sehun quickly lost interest, eyes roaming down and he caught sight of Luhan’s back pressed against the bars of his own balcony, a golden skinned boy Sehun knew well pleasuring him so deliciously that Luhan’s moans were like soft petals on the wind making Sehun’s skin prickle and his sex twitch. He smiled a bit and turned to see the rest of the Uppers’ castle. Thousands of windows and balconies lined the tall building, forming a circle around the garden that reached half the height of the building. There were two sections that stuck out from the circle, Sehun knew, the place where the husband’s worked and the classrooms where daughters and sons spent their time pretending to learn or running about planning how to approach the next target their father picked out for them.

  
  


It was the blooming season. Sehun had just reached his eighteenth year.

 

**✤**

 

Sehun made it a rule to come late to parties. The early arrivals were always the lower Uppers and their children and whoever was the host of the party. And littered about where the newly seasoned sons that appeared in the first hour to welcome the chiefs and heads and friends of the President when they came in the second hour with the late comers, and Sehun preferred to let them catch the eyes of the aging men who they still thought it was an honor to lay beneath. In the third hour, the honored sons appeared with the daughters in white dresses, those with only a few years left as prey, but still desired in their reputation for who they had laid beneath and how beautiful they were in doing so. By the fourth hour everything had began to settle and those who wished to hunt had picked their prey and when his father began to wonder where he was, a potential taker at his heels, that was when Sehun showed up. He slid into the mass of white and black clad men and children (wives off, much more interested in their own type of hunt on the dance floor) and grabbed a flute of sweet burning beige alcohol, his tie loosened and hair mussed as if he had been there for hours, and moved to the far double windows of the ballroom.

  
  


It was always Sehun’s hope to be ignored. A rare night it was that he didn’t find himself buried with the shit of useless DNA from the bloated and wrinkled bodies of his father’s friends. ( An even rarer night that he became the resistant shit in someone else’s back end.) Even coming this late he always felt the eyes of his hunters on him and then there was his father with an arm wrapped around the most unappealing of  prospects. One year, Sehun could hardly bare to count the days. He needed that year out of the ballroom to regain his old self. Even now, he could feel his eyes as he boredly gazed across the sea of white and black, landing on the young boys, sizing them up, wondering how they performed. He was already becoming a hunter. Sehun spent many a nights underneath masses of old skin imagining it was one of these boys finding honor bouncing in his lap instead. It was a queer thought and he wondered if he would make it the last nine months of being a prey without cheating the system and getting a pre-taste of barely seasoned ass.

  
  


“Sehun, what, pray tell, are you gazing at with such animosity?”

  
  


“Jinri, you broke my concentration,” Sehun said, thankful for the interruption of his perverse thoughts, by the sudden company of a daughter. “I was having quite the vivid outline plotting in my head.”

  
  


“You are doing self studies even while at a party? That certainly does not sound like the Young Oh I know.” The daughter parked herself against the ledge of the window Sehun claimed and swirled the beige liquor in her flute. She was tall and pale, white skin soft but not plump. Her hair had been cut almost like a boy’s bringing attention to her full bow lips that he was sure, had she been a son, would be wrapped around pert breasts and pulsing organs as if they were her instruments to practice every night. The long white dress clinging close to her frame, slit cut at her thighs to show the lush thickness of them and the obvious vacancy of external organs proved that she was indeed not a boy and could not legally become prey.

  
  


“You are right and I should thank you for interrupting such thoughts,” Sehun said and took a sip of his drink. The bubbles fizzed against his tongue and he allowed a moment of warm bliss to overcome him as the liquid ran down his throat.

  
  


“Perhaps school studies are a pleasant contrast to thoughts of my father. It seems he was finally able to ‘score a goal’ with you as they use to say.”

  
  


The images of the President’s secretary the night of the last party left a bad aftertaste in Sehun’s mouth. “I do not believe ‘score a goal’ was a term used. It was just ‘scored’. You should have your father spend time looking into hiring you a better Ancient Linguistics teacher instead of hunting young fair skinned boys. You believe he’s too old for it, don’t you?”

  
  


“What do you know of linguistics, you talk much too simply. And off course he is too old. He is a grandfather. My nieces are off dancing with my mother tonight.”

  
  


“I talk simply because I know language. I find simple speech the most fascinating.” Sehun held up his flute and watched the bubbles swirl and pop and grow again. “We should toast. Let us toast to having nieces and not nephews for tonight they would be seasoned with the juices of their grandfather’s friends.”

  
  


Jinri raised her glass and tapped it with Sehun’s before taking a heavy sip. A grin crossed her lips as she lowered her glass and Sehun followed her eyes.

  
  


“It seems Luhan has finally broken free of his father’s circle.”

  
  


A slim figure in black broke free from the group of elder men that always occupied the end of the buffet, the president at the center. His dust brown hair was fluffed and played up the just seasoned boy look he had about him that had long since been true. Sehun watched his old friend approach them, limbs moving like the spotted large cat in Sehun’s recent concentration of animals in his Ancient Linguistics class. He smiled when Luhan was close enough to greet.

  
  


“Sehun, my friend, don’t you look rather littered. Have you already been prayed on and brought back again for a go at a better roll?” Luhan asked and ruffled Sehun’s mussed hair.

  
  


Sehun pushed the older boy’s hand away. “Say what you like. I am already eighteen, there is no reason to impress men I have already done my deed for.”

  
  


Luhan frowned and pushed his hands into the pockets of his blazer jacket. “I wish you weren’t so seasoned, Sehun. You speak so jaded, but such speech matches well to a gem in the son’s scene. Ah, Jinri, you must gift your elder with a kiss.”

  
  


Sehun tipped the rest of the liquor between his lips and wondered how many carbon atoms he would have to bind with before he had gone through the chemical change needed to become a true treasure.

  
  


“It was nice talking to you, Luhan, but I must make my presence on the dance floor. Far too many eyes have been watching me lately because of the hair cut. If I am to stay how I’m meant to, I need not catch anyone’s eye,” Jinri said and winked.

  
  


Sehun passed her his empty flute and waved her off. “Go on then, the wives’ hands groping you on the dance floor must be nicer than ending up someone’s hole for the night.”

  
  


Jinri rolled her eyes and placed another kiss on Luhan’s cheek before walking away, long sheer skirt of her dress clinging to her thighs and flowing out at the bottom like the tails of those sea temptresses.

  
  


“Fair form she has, but really _groping_? Sehun, what sort of language is that?” Luhan asked taking Jinri’s place beside Sehun.

  
  


“It’s a simple word, straight to the point.”

  
  


“You have much too much fun in your linguistics class. I’m sure if you could you would have your professor hunt you every night just to have him whisper more words that are _straight_ and _to the point_.”

  
  


Sehun grinned and lifted a flute from the tray one of the lesser Upper’s sons carried around the ballroom. “Unfortunately, you are my professor and you happen to have the taste for salty-sweet skin that ripples with each _to the point_ move. You’re not an ounce interested in creamy skin like mine.”

  
  


The president’s son laughed. “You certainly have a way of saying you saw us together again.”

  
  


“You should stop laying under him in such obvious places,” Sehun said and took a sip of the liquid frowning at the tang of juice, not alcohol. “People might began to think you actually enjoy it.”

  
  


“I do enjoy it. Jongin...hmm, I enjoy him very much. And I do not always lay under him, sometimes I lay on top of him.” Luhan grinned at him.

  
  


“It’s supposed to be a son’s job to lay.”

  
  


“Jongin spends plenty of time on his back, but as you use to put it he’s ‘the shit in my backend.’ I quite prefer it that way.”

  
  


Sehun thrusted his flute at his older friend. “You’re disgusting.”

  
  


“It’s your quote, maybe you should stop using such vulgar word choices and then I could quote you properly.” Luhan grinned and raised the flute, sipping the beige juice. “I much prefer the non alcoholic drinks.”

  
  


“Your tastes are odd in general. It still amazes me how much you have gotten away with. Hiding your cum covered sheets for ten years, laying beneath another son -- a younger one-- while still being a son, and then continuing with that son even after you’re married. Don’t you have a child on the way yet?”

  
  


Luhan’s hand shook holding the delicate stem of the flute. Sehun watched his hand hoping those thin fingers would have enough adrenaline in them to shatter the stem and then Luhan and Jongin could sneak out of the ballroom together and Sehun would see dried blood marks on Jongin’s back the next day when they went for Physical Recreations from his attempt to bandage the President’s son, but only ended up filling him again and again just like they did every night, even on those nights where no party was held.

  
  


“You will understand soon why I don’t have a child, Sehun. I am the only child of my father’s that is actually his, I’m more like him than you could believe, though I’m only interested in one son.”

  
  


Sehun scanned the crowd of mingling males. Wearing white against his caramel skin stood Jongin, a son Sehun studied with and the son Luhan was enamored by. He held a smile on his thick lips that always made even Sehun feel slightly weak. Jongin wasn’t the highest Upper, but his family worked in a position that allowed him many opportunities such as being Sehun’s playmate for almost as long as Sehun had been friends with Luhan. Jongin was thirteen when Sehun first caught him drilling into sixteen year old Luhan on the President’s son’s bed. He had stood there and watched until both had climaxed, minds unfogged, and noticed him there. He told them he had come to play. Luhan threw a pillow at him and he was banned from the older boy’s room for two weeks.

  
  


Two weeks later, Luhan was a limping mess and he and Jongin became the older boy’s tormentors.

  
  


“He’s almost nineteen, Luhan. What are you going to do when your son has become a hunter?”

  
  


“We’ll both hunt the youngest sons possible and lock them up in a room full of toys until they’re old enough to maneuver through the hunters and pick who they want.”

  
  


Sehun choked on a laugh. “You’re trying to be a savior, Luhan. There’s nothing to save these boys from, it’s all part of the system, you’ll just hinder their growth.”

  
  


Luhan finished off the rest of the juice and licked his pink lips. “That’s what they teach you to say. I know you wish every night lying under your father’s friends that someone had saved you from my father’s lap that first time.”

  
  


Luhan placed the flute back in Sehun’s hand and Sehun stared at the two drops too small to slip down Luhan’s throat quick enough, left to evaporate in the ballroom air.

  
  


“Your father’s headed this way. He has a young friend with him, black suit,” Luhan said.

  
  


Sehun looked up. When Luhan said young, Sehun hadn’t expected the tall pretty brunette that towered awkwardly beside his father, looking around the ballroom with curious eyes, mouth slightly opened like a child, like a freshly seasoned son brought to a party for the first time. It was rare that Sehun’s father brought a young man that still had a hint of any innocence he was able to keep during years of being hunted. Sehun guessed it was this man’s first ball as a hunter and Sehun planned to make the most of that. If he had to let himself be sown he much prefered the new hunters, they were always so excited, full of energy to finally be at the top and not have to bend over for their father’s friends anymore. Sometimes they were too excited and went straight for the youngest sons they could find. You could always tell when a young son had spent the night with a new hunter -- they cowered in the corners of the ballroom and limped when forced by the shoulders by their father or mother to mingle. New hunters needed to be taught by the older sons, shown their place as the very bottom of the hunting chain. Sehun looked forward to teaching this one.

  
  


“Sehun, my son, this is Chief Park,” Sehun’s father introduced the tall man beside him.

  
  


“Oh, Headman Oh, is it really necessary to call me by that? Chief Park was my father,” Chief Park laughed. Half his face crinkled up more than the other when he did and Sehun tilted his head watching the odd expression. The man had seemed perfectly normal (minus the opened mouth) when walking over here, tall, pretty, confident strides. Had his father switched him out with another man? The laugh melted off Chief Parks’ face and it immediately went back to being pretty and curious.

  
  


Sehun tilted his head back. No, same man just weird facial expressions.

  
  


“Of course. You’ve taken over his position after all,” Sehun’s father pointed out and moved an arm to wrap around the tall young man’s shoulders making Chief Park lean down to accommodate for their differences in height.

  
  


Sehun placed the flute on the ledge of the window and wiped his hands down his white blazer, smoothing it before he reached both his hands out toward Chief Park and bowed his head. “I am Sehun, Headman Oh’s son. It is completely my pleasure to meet you Chief Park,” he greeted adding an almost innocent smile. He could hear Luhan scoff quietly behind him, but ignored the older boy.

  
  


Chief Park’s eyes caught Sehun’s. They stared into his for a moment before turning down in uneven crescents as the man’s whole face contorted into a huge teeth flashing smile. Sehun froze. How did someone smile like that, like the purple flowers that bloomed in the garden every morning to greet the sun? Morning Glories. There was no sun for this man to be greeting, it was night.

  
  


“Oh, yes it’s nice to meet you Seh...no, Young Oh.” He placed his hand into Sehun’s, big but pretty just like the man himself, and Sehun folded his over it shaking up and down twice in the usual submissive greeting of a son to an adult meeting for the first time.

  
  


Sehun bowed his head again and moved his hands up Chief Park’s arm, holding onto his bicep for a few seconds, grip loosening and tightening. “Of course the pleasure is all mine, Chief Park, it’s rare to find adults taller than me these days.”

  
  


“Chief Park here is in charge of the Resort Area of the Survey Division,” Sehun’s father explained. “He just arrived here a couple days ago.”

  
  


Sehun stared up at Chief Park truly amazed. The Resort Area was outside of the city, past where the Lowers lived. He knew there was a plan to make a place for travelling, a place to send the sons when they graduated to spend their year transforming from prey to hunter. Also, it seemed there was talk of using it to send those who did not marry in that year to the resort when they did marry. A sort of secluded atmosphere for better conception of a child. Sehun had only heard small talk here and there as he hung off one adult’s arm or another that he later laid under -- the  natives being a hassle, building material hard to find, the chief and his wife dying.

  
  


“You’re the son?” Sehun asked.

  
  


“Sehun, you know about the Resort Area?” his father asked.

  
  


“Only a little, Father, they sometimes mention it, but I can’t listen to such talk,” Sehun said making it sound like a joke when in truth he was not supposed to listen to such talk. Anything that had to do with outside of the Upper’s Mansion was adult and even men restricted. There was always enough gossip to keep one’s mind busy as well as with classes, but Sehun wasn’t naïve anymore, he was going to be nineteen.

  
  


“Of course not, children only care about gossip.” His father reached out a hand and ruffled his hair roughly. Sehun gritted his teeth to keep from whimpering as his hair tugged caught between his father’s fingers.

  
  


“I would love to talk to you about it sometime, Young Oh,” Chief Park said, his hand coming to lay on top of Sehun’s that were still wrapped around his arm. “The Resort Area is really a beautiful place.”

  
  


Sehun felt his chest jerk forward at the sincerity of the man’s words. Usually when an adult said they would love to discuss or show you something that wasn’t for a son, it was code that they had just hunted you. Sehun knew this code well, but Chief Park’s tone was different and Sehun clung a bit harder to his arm.

  
  


“Most certainly, Chief Park,” Sehun said and forced a smile up at the man.

  
  


Sehun’s father patted Chief Park on the back and met Sehun’s eyes. Sehun barely moved his head in understanding as his father excused himself to speak with the other adults. He had needed Sehun to be hunted by this man. It was beyond Sehun to understand why, but he did what his father asked. Not only were the men he laid under to create connections for himself when he became an adult, but to make stronger those connections his father already had.

  
  


“Do not take offense, but I’m glad your father has left, Young Oh,” Chief Park said.

  
  


Sehun turned to the man slightly disgusted by his words. Was he the type to begin claiming your body before even making a proper departure of the party? However, Chief Park only leaned against the window ledge and sighed, loosening his black tie.

  
  


“I really can not keep up with older men. I was taught for years, but I still can’t seem to speak with the same flattering mannerism as you all do.”

  
  


“Then don’t speak like such,” Sehun said. “I’ll drop it, too.”

  
  


Chief Park glanced at Sehun and smiled, the one like the morning flowers, and Sehun furrowed his brows. “Are you allowed to do that?”

  
  


He shouldn’t. It was one thing to speak as he wished with other sons and daughters and Luhan, but with an adult and one he just met would be frowned upon. “I can do anything that will please you, Chief Park.”

  
  


Chief Park let out a relieved sigh. “Ah, it’s good to have someone willing to make me feel comfortable. How about we just start off with you calling me Chanyeol. Your father told me you were eighteen. I haven’t even gotten to the age of twenty-one yet and I’m stuck with all these, well, old men. I did meet the President’s son, a Luhan. He was nice, but weird.”

  
  


Sehun laughed. “Indeed he is. Twenty-one, that means you’ve just gotten over your transformation year?”

  
  


“Transformation year...” Chief Park said seeming to look for the meaning of the phrase. “Ah, no, I didn’t have one of those. I was born and raised in the Resort Area. I’ve never been to a fancy party like this before nor surrounded by such serious people.”

  
  


“You...were never a son then?” Sehun asked. It seemed ridiculous to think that someone of a class like Chief Park’s had never been hunted before. Only the Lowers became adults that didn’t know how to hunt. They were always prey, fresh prey.

  
  


Chief Park just shrugged. “I learned the same things you did.”

  
  


Sehun nodded and looked out at the floor of black ties and white suits intermingling, sons being held closer by their hunters. People would start leaving soon. Sehun reached out and touched Chief Park’s hand just briefly. He never liked staying until the end, it meant running the risk of falling asleep with another man in his bed as well as his hunter changing their minds last minute for one of the morsels still left on the floor. Not that that had ever happened to Sehun, but he had stolen other son’s hunters before. They were grateful.

  
  


“Why are only the women and daughters dancing?” Chief Park asked.

  
  


“Men have other business at these parties,” Sehun said. “Shall we go out and discuss them?”

  
  


Chief Park’s lips pursed out as he stared at the flurry of colored dresses on the dance floor sprinkled with the white of daughters. Sehun struggled to find the word that described the man’s expression. Pouting. He had only seen children make such a face before.

  
  


“Too bad, I thought about asking you to dance...can I call you Sehun?” Chief Park asked.

  
  


“That would be most inappropriate, Chief Park.”

  
  


“Why? I told you you could call me Chanyeol.”

  
  


“I haven’t yet, have I?”

  
  


“True.”

  
  


He was still pouting. Sehun’s lips twitched upwards. This man was peculiar. 

 

✤

 

It was torturing him. Three days had passed since the party, the first party Sehun had went to bed without the smell of another man’s sweat on his skin in over a year. Somehow Chief Park had slipped away. No, more like Sehun was too shocked he simply allowed the man to go. The young chief of the Resort Area had more energy than Sehun could have given him credit for even without the burning sweet liquor provided at the party to fuel his system. He talked animatedly with everyone until late into the night when only the oldest men that could no longer play the hunter and men too shy to take claim of high prized sons still lingered, all the women and daughters gone to mingle the rest of the night in their own way (sleepovers is what Jinri had called them, only one out of seven of them were innocent sleepovers) and everyone else acting out the duties of laying and being laid. Sehun was usually always out by then but since it was Chief Park’s first party, Sehun tried to stay patient as he followed the man around. Once he was finally able to get him to agree to retire from the party, Chief Park only allowed Sehun to accompany him as far as the large door that led to the housing area of the Upper’s Mansion. He removed Sehun’s hand from his arm, bowed, then opened the door and headed away without giving any signal that Sehun should follow.

  
  


So Sehun didn’t.

  
  


He stood there and watched, mouth slightly ajar.

  
  


Had he been too pushy? Too eager? The younger guys usually preferred eager, the old men just wanted to do it, but there were those with kinks for resistance. Sehun really hated those guys because they went after the freshest sons. Did Chief Park like resistance? It didn’t seem that way as he had allowed Sehun to hold onto him all night and seemed to respond to Sehun’s suggestions. He didn’t have a wife. If he had one then perhaps just being affectionate with a son was enough and the connecting part could be done with just replacing her face with his. He didn’t have a wife though.

  
  


How could he possibly focus on memorizing the importance of the big gray creatures Luhan had holograms up of at the table in front of the study room? He had gone all weekend with little sleep wondering why Chief Park had let him go like that. Was he losing his touch? And it drove him crazy the fact he was worried about not being able to seduce older men any longer. He was almost nineteen.

  
  


Jongin seemed to be amused by Sehun’s inner torturing as he watched him from the desk next to Sehun’s...the only other student desk in the room. In between staring at their professor and writing down notes, Jongin would grin at Sehun and make suggestive gestures with his hands about why the younger was in a sour mood. Sehun could only write down curses he planned to yell at Jongin the next time he caught the two on Luhan’s terrace.

  
  


“Now that you understand the importance of this creature I want you both to tell me it’s name. Not the scientific name, the one most people used for it back when it still roamed where we could see it,” Luhan said tapping the wooden pointer in his hand, glasses perched on his nose.

  
  


“Hippa...Hippetamouse...” Jongin said, his tongue lolling against his thick lips and Sehun grinned.

  
  


“Hippo,” Sehun said. “It’s a hippo.”

  
  


Luhan waved the stick at Sehun. “That’s the shortened version, what’s the long one?”

  
  


Sehun leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms. “Doesn’t matter, it was too complicated of a word for them to say back then why do we need to say it now?”

  
  


“In your case particularly, Young Oh, it has an importance. You are the son of the Head of the Survey Division. Survey means going out and experiencing these things for yourself. If you work for the Resort Area which is under your father’s control you have a chance of seeing such a creature. Knowing the correct term for this creature will help you talk with the natives there.”

  
  


“I have no interest in going into my father’s section. I want to just live freely until I’m too old to as they said ‘get it up’,” Sehun said and grinned when he heard Jongin stifle a laugh.

  
  


“I regret ever being your teacher for Slang Linguistics. The speaking when it comes to animals is very important as well, not just dirty talk,” Luhan said.

  
  


Sehun reached his arms above his head and stretched. “You’re a master at dirty talking, Luhan, just ask Jongin here.”

  
  


“Sehun,” Jongin said, voice low, a warning. Sehun rolled his eyes. He understood, he was making too much fun of Jongin’s beloved hunter.

  
  


“Leave me alone I’m irritable today.”

  
  


Luhan sighed and turned to his other student. “You were close, Jongin, but it’s hippopotamus o not e and not a mouse.”

  
  


Sehun ignored the lesson as Luhan moved from the Hippo to a scaly dark green creature. _Croc_ Sehun thought and only turned his attention to watch many of the large reptiles pull apart a small Hippo. He scoffed reminded of the ballroom when he was young. How many men tried to pull him apart?

  
  


There was a knock on the door just as Sehun was losing himself to the white molds of the ceiling, round molds that reminded him of the President’s daughters breasts on his bed’s posts. Luhan stopped in his flirtatious teaching with Jongin and answered it. A Lower worker walked in and bowed. When she looked back up, her eyes looked about the room, still large and curious not annoyed with all the splendors of the Uppers so Sehun decided she must be newly hired. What an honor it must have been.

  
  


“Chief Park of the...um...Resort Area requests the company of the Younger Master Oh,” she said and ended with a smile. She was pretty, but her eloquence gave away her status along with her clothes. Why couldn’t they just have lower Uppers do these jobs?

  
  


Sehun stood and waved at Luhan and Jongin. “It seems I am wanted for more important things than learning what a croc...crocodile is.”

  
  


“Yes you are wanted for dirtier things,” Jongin called after Sehun. “How indecent you are going off to cheat.”

  
  


Sehun quickly walked out of the classroom satisfied when he heard the snap of Luhan’s pointer against Jongin’s skin after he closed the door. It was not usual to meet outside of a ball, that only happened on your first or when your father wanted you to meet someone specifically. Or the President did.

  
  


Chief Park’s rooms would be near to his own as all the rooms were separated by father’s workplace for sons and mother’s workplace for daughters -- one side of the housing section for women and the other for men. Only two floors down did Sehun come across the Resort Area’s chief. The halls were mostly empty, completely unoccupied before last week as the Resort Area  mainly stayed at the resort. Sehun had never met any of them before, only heard occasional words among the adult conversation he was supposed to be ignoring when standing with his hunters. They were a mysterious group working among ‘natives’ as they called them, people who lived in a different society from their own, smaller societies that Sehun really didn’t know how to fathom. He had never seen a Lower that wasn’t a servant better yet a foreigner ‘native’.

  
  


Sehun walked past each of the doors in the hall listening into them for any sign of life. He was meant to meet Chief Park, but he wasn’t sure where to meet him. He finally came to a study where he could hear the tapping of keys on a desk and entered with a soft knock.

  
  


“Chief Park,” he called pushing the heavy wood patterned metal door open. Inside there was a large desk with a  hologram up, some sort of map with a document beside it that Chief Park tapped away on possibly making notes on points he saw on the maps. Sehun often watched his father do similar things on his own screen when working back when Sehun was still young enough to be allowed into his father’s study and sit on his lap without shaking with worry that other boys his age had sat in that lap in a matter not so innocent.

  
  


A delayed reaction, Chief Park lifted his head, eyes and mouth wide in surprise. “Oh, Young Oh, I didn’t expect you here so soon.” He made to quickly save and rid the screen before standing. He walked around his desk and greeted Sehun with a bow and the same large bright smile from the party.

  
  


Sehun was stunned by the smile. Really, he had never seen someone smile like that, not since he was a child. What was there to smile about so genuinely? He bowed his head, breaking his eyes away from those shining teeth.

  
  


“You did call for my company, did you not?”

  
  


“Yes yes. Well, it’s a bit lonely here when there’s no one really my age. It seems they’re all teaching or working on weddings. I don’t have much work while I’m here so I inquired to your father about finding playmates.”

  
  


“You called me here to play, Chief Park?” Sehun asked. Play. He played with Jongin and Luhan and Jinri, but he also ‘played’ with men like the President’s secretary. In which context did he mean?

  
  


“In a sense, yes. Your father said I could call on Luhan I believe, he said he was your teacher so it was fine if I pulled him away or I could just pull you out of class. I don’t really know Luhan, he’s the president’s son, right?”

  
  


“Yes, would you like for me to introduce you two? I was just with him in a lesson, I’m sure he hasn’t finished teaching it to my classmate,” Sehun said gesturing to the door.

  
  


“Oh, you were in class? I didn’t mean to take you away from your studies. You can go back if you wish, I’ll call you out later.”

  
  


Go back and listen to Luhan teach them the name of animals he would most likely never see in his life or stay here and ‘play’ with Chief Park. Really, even if it ended up being the less innocent of the two meanings, he would much rather lay and let someone like the Resort Area chief pound into him than be bored for another hour before his Religious and Cult Literature professor showed up. It wasn’t as if it was terribly unpleasant when it was with someone young.

  
  


“I have no interest in going to classes today. My linguistics class is almost over and my studies in religion are fairly advanced.”

  
  


Chief Park clapped his hands and smiled radiantly again. “Then it wouldn’t hurt to miss class for a day?”

  
  


Sehun found his lips tugging up at the corners as he replied, “Not at all, Chief Park.”

  
  


“Please, do call me Chanyeol at least when we’re alone. We’re so close in age after all.”

  
  


Sehun frowned at the insistence of the older man’s name. “Is it really all that odd?”

  
  


Chief Park chuckled and ran a hand through his brown hair. “I am making you uncomfortable. I’ll stop asking then if it is something you truly can not do. The only people my age in the Resort Area were natives and they all called each other by name, even the younger ones called me simply Chanyeol.”

  
  


“Chanyeol.” Sehun said the name softly letting it roll around in his mouth. It felt friendly. “I can call you this when we are alone.”

  
  


Chief Park beamed. “And when you’re an adult, you can call me such then?”

  
  


“As long as it isn’t business, yes, I do believe so,” Sehun said.

  
  


Chief Park held out a hand. “Then let us become friends, Sehun. When you become an adult, I will be your first ally.”

  
  


Sehun stared at the hand. He trailed his eyes up the maroon of Chief Park’s blazer jacket and to his shoulder then ear. That was the height difference between them. Sehun took a step closer and reached his hand out to take Chief Park’s.

  
  


“I could use friends, Chanyeol.” This was probably more than what his father had anticipated handing over his son to the young chief, but Sehun had a feeling that perhaps this odd man would be good for his future.

  
  


Chief Park gripped Sehun’s hand tight and tugged him forward. “Great, let me show you something then, Sehun.”

  
  


Sehun stumbled after the man as he was dragged out of the study and down the hall to a sitting room with many windows and decorated by plant after plant. Sehun tried to name them, but it was only the past year he had started his Botany class and he had barely made it through all the plants that could be seen within the walls of the Upper’s Mansion and garden. Chief Park pulled him over to one particular plant with heavy berry like fruits hanging from its stems. Sehun’s hand was only let go once they were hovered over it.

  
  


“This is a plant I brought back with me from the Resort Area,” Chief Park explained.

  
  


“What are all the other plants?” Sehun asked.

  
  


Chief Park looked around, eyes big and then softening. “I’m not too sure, my father was studying them. I haven’t gotten through all his notes.”

  
  


Sehun nodded and looked back at the plant. The more he looked at it the more he disliked it. He sniffed and made a face at the acrid smell it gave off. “What is this?”

  
  


“It doesn’t smell too good,” Chief Park said and reached a hand out to pluck one of the large berries from the stem. “It doesn’t taste too wonderful either, but it is good for you.”

  
  


“Good? How can something disgusting be good?” Sehun asked.

  
  


Chief Park plucked a few more of the berries and moved over to a sink planted in the room. He started to wash them. “The native woman that took care of me told me by eating this fruit often, they were able to stave off a sickness. It seemed the bacteria really hated this fruit. They make many things with it, even lubrications.”

  
  


He laughed as if it was a joke, but Sehun found himself suddenly intrigued by the plant. Could you make lubes from plants? Many of his hunters did not understand why such things were needed when having sex with the sons. Sehun knew they were needed, he had read a book about it when he was still fresh, but he hadn’t known how those things were made.

  
  


“My mother hated them and would never eat them, at least that’s what my father said. He liked them though.” Chief Park stopped washing the berries.  He put them in a bowl and walked over to a window seat where the sun shined the brightest. Sehun followed as sat with him watching as Chief Park brought one to his lips and paused it there as he thought. After a second, he finally let it pass his lips and turned his head to stare out the window as he chewed.

  
  


“Your parents are dead?” Sehun asked. He had heard at the party that Chanyeol had replaced his father, the old Chief Park. With what he was telling Sehun now, he could only assume his mother had long since past.

  
  


Chief Park swallowed. “Yeah, my mother got sick when she got pregnant with me. She died before she could even finish birthing me. They said she was just weak and couldn’t take having a child without all the advance medicines you have here.”

  
  


Sehun stared at the berries then reached out a hand. He traced a finger on the rim of the bowl and looked at Chief Park. “May I taste one?”

  
  


A smile crossed Chief Park’s face and he plucked one from the bowl and held it out for Sehun to take. Sehun stared at it for a moment then reached out and took Chief Park’s wrist between his hands. It felt daintier compared to the size of his hand. He lifted it so the berry was at the level of his mouth and leaned forward. Sehun opened his mouth and let his tongue meet the berry first before pulling it into his mouth. He let his lips just barely brush the tips of the man’s fingers then pulled away and stared into Chief Park’s eyes.

  
  


The Resort Area chief stared wide eyed at Sehun before quickly looking away. There was pink on his face and a grin pulled at Sehun’s lips only to be replaced by a pursing of his lips as he bit down on the fruit.

  
  


“It’s sour,” Sehun said swallowing it.

  
  


Chief Park looked back at him and laughed. “Yes, I suppose you have to acquire the taste.”

  
  


Sehun licked his lips then helped himself to a second one. He turned and rested his back against the window and got comfortable. “It’s not too bad the second time.”

  
  


“I’m glad you are not totally repulsed by them. Perhaps you can come again here when you have free time and I’ll make you something more appetizing with these berries. I learned how to make a jam with them, I think I may still have a can somewhere.”

  
  


Sehun stole another berry. “You can cook? I’ve never met an Upper that could cook.”

  
  


“It seems I can do a lot of things most Uppers can’t. I’m still very lost here. My father was killed by a fallen statue a few months ago and I was put under a sudden crash course. I hadn’t known much about this mansion and what was expected of me until then.”

  
  


Sehun paused in stealing the last berry in the bowl and looked Chief Park over. “You...you should learn quickly, Chanyeol.”

  
  


A gentle smile crossed Chief Park’s face and he pushed the bowl over to Sehun. “You are right. You probably know more than I do, tell me about your classes then.”

  
  


“Boring,” Sehun said and plopped the last berry into his mouth. It was much sweeter than the other ones he had had.

  
  


“Come now, they can’t all be that boring. What are you taking?”

  
  


“Well, I have Ancient Name Linguistics which _is_ boring, First Botany, and then my Advance Religion Studies. Like all the sons, I also have a recreational period.”

  
  


Chief Park nodded. “They do sound a bit boring. What religion did you choose to study? In the Resort Area, the natives all had one, but I hear here you get to pick what you want.”

  
  


Sehun shrugged. “I haven’t decided. I’ll decide when I become an adult.”

  
  


“I’m glad you get to choose. In the religion the natives had, you could only marry the opposite sex, but they could also have many wives which I found strange.”

  
  


“The Lowers can marry the same sex if they wish, they just donate their seeds to science if they do,” Sehun said. “I heard that from one of my father’s friends, I’m not sure if it’s true.”

  
  


Chief Park went back to looking out the window. Sehun looked out as well to see it overlooked the wall that separated them from the Lowers.

  
  


“So love only exists for the poor it seems.”

  
Sehun blinked suddenly confused. Love. It had been a long time since he had heard that word.

 

**✤**

 

The Chief of Monetary Distribution was eyeing him from across the room. Sehun tried to remember if he had ever laid with the man before, but he couldn’t conjure up the large birthmark he had on his neck in his memories. It was marks like those that allowed Sehun to keep track of all the connections he had made instead of having to remember the men’s faces. He was the man the President had offered his eldest daughter (the one every son had marble likenesses of in their bedrooms in one form or another) to even though it was rumored he was more than fairly inclined to the sons. Thank all that was ever prayed to that it was older sons.

  
  


In Sehun’s place, though, he was cursing them.

  
  


There was a reason Sehun tried not to dress up too much at these balls, why he snuck in later. He didn’t want to attract attention. He would just allow himself to be hunted by whatever man his father brought him. But, he had paid extra attention to his appearance this time. It must have been his pride. He still couldn’t get over not finishing out the hunt with with Chief Park Chanyeol . After being invited to his studies, Sehun had ran into the Chief of the Resort Area three times in the following days. Each time he had given Sehun that sung greeting smile, exchanged a few words, then passed on by. So, Sehun had combed his hair back and kept his suit nice and proper. He could put effort into it one last time. And he needed his pride to be intact if he was determined to become a proper adult when the turn of the year came.

  
  


Sehun scanned the crowd of white and black figures for the tall man. He caught sight of the President laughing with his cabinet group near where the Chief of Monetary Distribution was standing. The President had his arms wrapped around both his daughters, one still a ‘daughter’, but only for as long as Sehun was. He wondered which of the men she would be handed over to, or which of their sons she would have to play wife, not that she was much of a wife. Jinri often whispered rumors to him during the children play time about how she had seen the younger, Krystal, walk out from her father’s room bearing the juices only her mother should between her legs just like her elder sister before had.

  
  


It wasn’t like they were actually the President’s daughters, Luhan had been lucky to be created on a drunken night between his parents.

  
  


Sehun could hear the footsteps of his father and straightened his back. Who would his father bring to him? Where was Chanyeol. Chief Park, even if he had not had the etiquette of an Upper drilled into him, should know that it was imperative to show up.

  
  


“I hear your relationship with Chief Park is good,” Sehun’s father said.

  
  


Sehun turned to him and bowed his head. “Father. It seems he has taken some liking to me.”

  
  


“Good. I need him under your fingers if I’m to convince him to allow us to move the natives out of the area. They’ve been starting riots against what we plan to build there. ‘You can’t cut down this tree because of this’ ‘You can’t cut down that bush because of that’.”

  
  


Sehun nodded not really listening to his father, but remembering the sour taste of the large berries Chief Park, Chanyeol, had given him. He wanted to eat them again. A hand on his shoulder brought him back to his father’s words.

  
  


“So, Sehun, please keep close tabs on him. He’s young, show him the ropes.”

  
  


Sehun bowed once again to his father. “Indeed father.” He had already been planning to do that.

  
  


His father left him and Sehun continued to stand at his usual place by the window watching the crowd. He saw someone tall walking and perked up. One of the lesser Upper sons walked past with a tray and Sehun took one, happy to find the sting on his tongue from alcohol instead of juice sweetener. He made to go after the figure, but they were lost. Sehun sighed and leaned back. Perhaps Luhan would break himself from pleasantries and Jongin’s fingers to entertain Sehun. Or Jinri from her suitors who were much too touchy from what Sehun could see across the room. Really, that high slit and those milky thighs were tempting.

  
  


“Young Oh.”

  
  


Sehun turned, surprised by the deep call of his name. A smile spread across his face. “Chief Park, I had not seen you arrive.”

  
  


He smiled, lips unfolding to reveal his straight white teeth. “Were you looking for me, Young Oh?”

  
  


Sehun chuckled. “I was hoping for some entertainment. It’s quite boring here when friends are busy.”

  
  


“I understand your feelings, Young Oh. Other than you, I haven’t had time to make many friends, so I suppose I’ll have a boring time.”

  
  


Sehun moved closer and placed a hand on Chanyeol’s arm. “I won’t let this night be boring, Chief Park. I like to believe I kept you at least slightly entertained last time.”

  
  


“Listening to business was definitely more enjoyable with someone to bear through it with.” He placed a hand over Sehun’s. “I still wish we could dance.”

  
  


Sehun looked over to where the wives and daughters danced together on the floor with the children that were still too young for the white suits. Maybe dancing would be fun, Sehun had not partaken in it since he was sat in the President’s lap. He turned back to Chanyeol and moved his hand up higher. “Perhaps we could dance back in your chambers, Chief Park.”

  
  


Chanyeol cocked his head at Sehun. A soft smile pulled at his lips. “That would be wonderful, Young Oh. I’ll ask you to dance next time I pull you out of class to accompany me.”

  
  


Sehun tried not to frown as his hint of wanting to quickly be hunted was turned down, but his chest leapt with the thought that he would be allowed to be in the Cheif of the Resort Area’s presence again, alone.

  
  


“Of course, Chief Park.”

  
  


A group of older men started their way. Sehun caught their eyes, they were intent on Chanyeol. He cleared his throat and nudged the resort cheif their way. Chanyeol immediately bowed ninety degrees. The men held out a hand, a few of them glancing at Sehun, flickers of lust, but mostly curiosity (or maybe memory. He could have laid with a few of them when he was still very much a boy and didn’t keep track).

  
  


“Young Chief Park,” one of the men said, “how are you faring these days.”

  
  


Chanyeol bowed only his head this time. “My life here has been running smoothly, Head Ahn. I hear your son has just come into season.”

  
  


Head Ahn smiled. “Yes, yes, would you like to meet him? Daniel is a very precious boy.”

  
  


Sehun stole a glance at Chanyeol. The resort head looked lost. Of course, he would have never been offered someone’s son like that. Sehun could feel him move closer to Sehun and he glanced back. That was right, Chanyeol was his prey tonight. He couldn’t lose him to a boy you had barely touched puberty. Also, there was the fact Chanyeol had never hunted nor been hunted and he most likely wouldn’t know how to even start. Sehun still had to show him that.

  
  


“Daniel? He really is quite a precious boy,” Sehun said. “I believe I saw Secretary Choi fawning over him earlier.”

  
  


Head Ahn frowned and Sehun caught him glancing around. Was it fatherly concern? Sehun hadn’t seen that on his own father’s face since he was caught playing with himself in the bathes. He use to have a Lower maid. She was beautiful and much too close. She would bathe with him sometimes, but she had been sick with pregnancy for the preceding three months. He hadn’t known what that was then.

  
  


“So it would seem,” Head Ahn said. “Please excuse me, I would like to go see how my son is faring at his first party.”

  
  


Sehun watched the man depart with a sense of smugness in his eyes. The other men began to discuss with Chanyeol and Sehun tuned out, looking around the party then back at his prey to gauge Chief Park’s reaction to the conversation. He would wait until Chanyeol was much too bored before he made his move.

  
  


It was on Sehun’s third flute of champagne that he tuned back into the conversation. He was a little in awe with how well Chanyeol had been able to keep up the conversation with the older men. Actually, it sounded like they were in the middle of a debate and Chanyeol was starting to side with the Chief of Monetary Distribution who Sehun had not seen arrive instead of the other Head Ahn who was above the Chief of Monetary Distribution as that was only a lower branch in his division like Chanyeol was to Sehun’s father.

  
  


Sehun laughed to get their attention then immediately sobered up trying to look innocent. “Oh, excuse me, I just happened to see one of the wine bearing sons almost slip and spill wine all over Secretary Choi’s back.”

  
  


The men laughed as well and Sehun turned to look at Chanyeol and made a gesture with his head. Chanyeol looked at him curiously then smiled and excused them both. He placed a hand over Sehun’s that was still wrapped around his arm and walked him in one direction which happened to be the main entryway. Sehun smiled to himself.

  
  


“You wanted to come away,” Chanyeol said stopping just before the large gold framed doors.

  
  


Sehun let his smile become flirtatious and moved his hands higher on Chanyeol’s arm, standing tall so he was almost the same height as the Chief of the Resort Area. “I find the party dull now, Chief Park, let us leave.”

  
  


Chanyeol frowned and started to pull away. “Are you tired, Young Oh, shall I have someone escort you out. There were still men I wished to speak with.”

  
  


Sehun tightened his hold. “Would you escort me? You can speak with them when you come back.”

  
  


Chanyeol seemed unsure of what to do. Sehun couldn’t let him go again, both for his own sanity and the fact Chanyeol would never survive if he didn’t take a son.

  
  


“Chanyeol, please,” Sehun said softly. “I _need_ to talk to you.”

  
  


“Sehun...alright Young Oh, let’s get you to your chambers,” Chanyeol said.

  
  


Sehun led the way, keeping quiet as they moved. It was still early, but occasionally, he could hear the rough grunts from doors and soft protests behind unnecessarily large statues of the President’s daughter. He glanced back at Chanyeol finding humor in his pink cheeks. What an innocent life this man must have lived. Sehun really couldn’t imagine what Chanyeol had described to him the other day, a life leaving not as a son, but as a child. How had Chanyeol’s father planned for his son when he reached adulthood? Would he have been sent back for his change over year at nineteen if he had not been killed?

  
  


He was quiet with his chamber door as he pushed it opened not wanting to startle Chanyeol away before he could get the man on his bed. Sehun let Chanyeol in first and sliver by sliver, slid the lock on his bedroom door. Chanyeol walked to Sehun’s balcony. He pulled the curtain opened only to quickly shut it again. Sehun laughed and sat on his large bed.

  
  


“Are Luhan and Jongin at it again? I told them not to perform on their balcony.”

  
  


Chanyeol turned around with a sheepish look on his face. Sehun patted the spot next to him.

  
  


“Come, I said I had something to speak of with you, Chief Park.”

  
  


Chanyeol smiled and walked over. “We’re alone now, you don’t have to call me Chief Park.”

  
  


Sehun tried to fake a shy smile and looked up at the man. “I understand. Chanyeol, thank you for escorting me.”

  
  


“Of course. I am your friend after all. What was the matter that you wished to discuss with me?”

  
  


Sehun sighed and reached up a hand to touch his hair. “I’ve been troubled by something you did.”

  
  


“Oh, was it the berries? You didn’t have to eat the berries just to be polite. I know they’re an acquired taste,” Chanyeol quickly defended.

  
  


“No, I enjoyed the fruit. It was something before that.”

  
  


Chanyeol tilted his head confused. “What did I do to upset you before that, Sehun?”

  
  


“You hurt my pride, Park Chanyeol. Never have I been left outside the doors on the night of a party. I’ve gone to my room alone, but never was I ditched.” Sehun looked up at Chanyeol with anger. “You didn’t hunt me properly.”

  
  


Surprise shone on Chanyeol’s face then embarrassment. “I never intended to hunt you. I just enjoyed your company. I don’t really understand this custom of hunting.”

  
  


“You _need_ to understand, Chief Park. If you want to survive here then you have to hunt.” Sehun reached out and grabbed Chanyeol’s collar pulling himself closer to the man. He lowered his voice to a purr and held his face so close to Chanyeol’s, their noses brushed. “I can help you.”

  
  


Chanyeol’s eyes were large and Sehun could clearly see the emotions Chanyeol felt displayed through them. Fear was predominate. Chanyeol looked away.

  
  


“I don’t want to take you, Sehun.”

  
  


Sehun moved his fingers to trace up Chanyeol’s long neck and behind one of his ears. Chanyeol finally met his eyes again, another emotion flickering across them. Lust. Sehun chuckled.

  
  


“I never intended for you to take me. Tonight, I will teach you what you need to do and in return, I get to practice hunting for a night.” Sehun started pushing Chanyeol down on the bed.

  
  


“W-we’re friends,” Chanyeol protested, a hand coming to hold Sehun’s shoulder as if holding him back.

  
  


Sehun stood and for once he towered over the man. “This is what friends do, they help each other. You need to learn and I’m the best son to teach you.”

  
  


He was flush against Sehun’s bed, hand more touching Sehun’s shoulder than pushing him away. “I...I don’t want to, Sehun.”

  
  


Sehun grabbed the hand on his shoulder and locked his fingers with Chanyeol’s long ones. He smiled down at the older man. “Give it a few minutes, you’ll change your mind.”

  
  


Before Chanyeol could protest again, Sehun leaned down and captured Chanyeol’s lips with his own. He was surprised. Just like Chanyeol’s smile, his lips parted like morning flowers as if Sehun was the sun when their lips touched. And they felt just as soft as flower petals. It was strange to Sehun. He was use to forced kisses by old men whose lips were either chapped from years of stressed nibbling and wrinkled, or the sticky chemical kisses daughters bestowed on sons they were pleased with. Sehun’s lips moved away smoothly with only enough friction to send a thrill down his spine.

  
  


Chanyeol’s large eyes were half closed staring up at Sehun. His lips were parted and Sehun resisted the urge to kiss the man again. He let the urge crawl in his stomach and across his lips. He had never felt it before. Perhaps because Chanyeol was attractive, because Sehun more than half liked Chanyeol. Luhan was attractive, too, but he had never felt the urge to kiss his old friend nor Jongin.

  
  


Sehun swallowed the urge and watched Chanyeol’s lips as they quivered. He smirked. “I thought you said you didn’t want to, but you look like you want to be kissed again.”

  
  


Chanyeol licked his lips, a swipe of his thick tongue along those rough pink petals and straight teeth. “I said I didn’t want to, not that I didn’t like it.”

  
  


Sehun chuckled. “Then yield to me tonight. Let me show you how to be a graduated son and every man will respect you.”

  
  


Chanyeol frowned. “I don’t need their respect.”

  
  


“Trust me, you do.” Sehun moved his hand to Chanyeol’s tie, fingers moving slick into the heart of the knot. With one flick, he loosened it and pulled it off. He wrapped half the tie around his wrist and held the other end in his other hand. He snapped it, the silk weave making a crisp ring in Sehun’s room. “Take your blazer off, then put your hands against the headboard.”

  
  


“I...”Chanyeol began.

  
  


Sehun quickly stared him down with a glare copied from his hunters when he was young and scared. Chanyeol looked down, pink blushing on his cheeks. He sat up a bit and pulled the black blazer off, throwing it to the side of the bed. Slowly, he lifted his wrists, too slow for Sehun and he let the tie fall from one hand to grab Chanyeol’s wrists and pin them to his headboard, to the single metal loop placed there for disobedient sons. Sehun’s hand was just big enough to fit around Chanyeol’s wrists, and he was just strong enough to force them to stay when the older man tried to pull away after a sudden rush of moralizing courage.

  
  


What was moral? Sehun never quite understood that word.

  
  


He tied the tie around Chanyeol’s wrists and then to the metal loop, snug enough that Chanyeol couldn’t slip his hands out, but not tight enough to bruise unless Chanyeol was a thrasher. Sehun looked at Chanyeol’s face. His head was bent, and locks of fire-brown hair fell over his eyes. Sehun moved his hands beneath the fallen strands of hair and held Chanyeol’s cheek gently. He bent forward and kissed Chanyeol’s head. He could almost imagine this was what the more kind hearted graduates felt when they took their first son, that tender tightening in their chest. A part of him thought perhaps he shouldn’t do it, but more of him wanted to.

  
  


Sehun moved his hand to Chanyeol’s neck, his thumb caressing a vein encouraging Chanyeol to look up. He did, a heartbreaking need in his eyes. Sehun didn’t understand it, the look. Disappointment? That looked like a part of it. Sehun wasn’t the type to disappoint. He became determined again. Even when Chanyeol started to take other sons and Sehun took his own, he would leave his new friend with an impression buried deeper inside him than he could ever be with someone else.

  
  


His fingers pushed into the collar of Chanyeol’s dress shirt then down to the buttons. He popped each one opened and moved down to press kisses to the revealed skin. Chanyeol whimpered. It was the sound Sehun had made on the president’s lap when his hand moved to his own for the first time. Virginal. But, there was something different about that whimper coming from an adult.

  
  


Sehun’s lips played claim to Chanyeol’s stomach, tongue accompanying the soft velvet touch to the shallow sculpted abs and small light hair trail that led lower. He used his teeth to pop Chanyeol’s pants upon and pull his zipper down. Chanyeol made that virginal whimper again, deeper than Sehun remembered his own being, when Sehun nudged his nose against the bulge in the soft cotton underwear all the Uppers wore. He moved his lips to it instead, sucked on the fabric and looked up at Chanyeol. Chanyeol’s eyes were closed, lips opened, letting out little puffs of breath.

  
  


Sehun sat up, his hand sliding up one of Chanyeol’s legs before landing on his lap and palmed his bulge slowly. “You’re hard, but you’re reacting too quickly. Sons spread rumors around about the young adults that come too quick. Hold it until I’m inside of you.”

  
  


His fingers tugged on Chanyeol’s pants, removing them, then his underwear right after. He spread Chanyeol’s legs, dead weight as the older man seemed to have gone slack from the realization of everything. That urge came again, this time to kiss the standing red penis revealed between Chanyeol’s legs. But, hunters didn’t often care for pleasing their prey and Sehun was teaching Chanyeol what would be expected of him. If anyone should be, as the Lowers would say, ‘sucking dick’, it should be the one in Chanyeol’s position. Only the younger ones got that privilege because they were young and couldn’t get hard because they were scared. Sehun touched it though. He grabbed the base and jerked Chanyeol’s member while watching his face. His eyes were blank, a thin layer of lust covering them. His hips moved naturally with Sehun’s hand and his body quivered. Sehun took that as a hint he was getting close and squeezed Chanyeol to stop him.

  
  


“A son cannot cum before the hunter is inside of him,” Sehun said then started to undress himself.

  
  


Chanyeol shifted on the bed, the ring clinking against the headboard with the motion. “Do you...do you want to do this, Sehun?”

  
  


Sehun paused in sliding his dress shirt from his shoulder. He tilted his head as he looked at Chanyeol. The older man wasn’t looking directly at him, but somewhere below his chin. He was still flushed pink, but some of the lust had cleared up and Sehun could see what he was really feeling. There was that disappointment again and Sehun’s face hardened.

  
  


“Do I want to do what?” Sehun asked.

  
  


“Sex, Sehun, do you really want to have sex with me?” Chanyeol asked.

  
  


Sex. Sehun wasn’t use to it being called like that. Hunting, fucking, making connections -- he’d heard those before. Sex sounded almost as intimate as ‘making love’ and who made love in the Uppers?

  
  


Sehun finished pulling his shirt off and went for his own pants. “Yes, Chanyeol, I want to have sex with you.”

  
  


“Oh...alright,” Chanyeol said and Sehun thought the surprised look on his face was strange. Hadn’t he said that was what he planned from the very start of that night?

  
  


He found lubricant in his draw and pushed Chanyeol’s legs apart, fitting himself between them. With slick fingers, he played with the older man’s hole, the first few rings of muscle. Chanyeol withered on the bed, ring clicking over and over, still softly, on the headboard. Sehun pushed a finger in, pumping it in and out and Chanyeol seemed to take it with ease. He remembered his one first finger, much too big for his small body, pain more than pleasure by the time there were three and as for the real deal, he rather not remember how that felt, less so than remember that it felt at all.

  
  


How did it feel to have your first time when you were an adult? Sehun wondered if Chanyeol would explain that to him. Half the daughters were still virgin when they were married off, but virginity was different for the two sexes, wasn’t it?

  
  


Chanyeol took the next finger well, but Sehun slowed on the third hearing his older friend hiss.

  
  


Friends could talk to each other about that kind of thing. Sehun had never asked Luhan how it felt to lose his virginity to someone of his choosing. But, honestly, Luhan’s and Jongin’s relationship scared him. Had sons ever had sex with each other before, sex not commanded by a hunter?

  
  


Chanyeol started to moan. It was different from the whimpers before, needy, ready, asking for it. Sehun wanted to give it, a stronger urge from before filling the pit of his stomach and he removed his fingers to stroke himself. He was hard. Very hard. It had been a while since he had felt this without feeling betrayed by his body. Pleasure was pleasure, but they were all just shits in his bottom end. Was he just going to be a shit for Chanyeol? The thought left a bitter taste in his mind and he entered rougher than he meant to.

  
  


Chanyeol let out a soft sudden sob and stilled. Sehun dug his nails into Chanyeol’s thighs to still as well. Chanyeol was hot. The others Sehun happened to have topped out of some kinky whim had felt wrinkly or too wet. Chanyeol felt hot and rough. Was this what he felt like? It was amazing. Maybe he wouldn’t have such a hard time hunting when that time came after his transformation year.

  
  


Maybe it was just Chanyeol.

  
  


The older man twisted his hips. Sehun let out a grunt and his hips gave a thrust in return to the motion. Chanyeol moaned. It was deep, but pleasing and Sehun started to move for real, moving the way none of his father’s friends could inside him. Even if he was allowed to give commands, they just didn’t understand. Chanyeol was a virgin. He wouldn’t know how he wanted it. It seemed they had the same taste though. The metal ring clinked faster against the headboard as Sehun started to move faster. Chanyeol’s long and strong legs wrapped tightly around Sehun’s waist bringing them closer and Sehun deeper into him. Sehun watched him, watched Chanyeol’s expressions. They were so pure, so unheld and out in the open. He wanted this, he didn’t want this, oh, but he needed it. It was like Sehun was reading an intense book and he wanted to take a breather, but only delved deeper into it.

  
  


Chanyeol came far before Sehun was ready with only one rough graze against that spot inside him. Sehun continued, moving a hand to stroke Chanyeol’s hip as he breath heavy and gave whimpers of pleasure from Sehun still causing friction against his now hypersensitive inner parts.

  
  


Sehun came. Honestly, it had been a while since he hadn’t faked an orgasm. He came heavy and a lot and he could feel it leaking back out of Chanyeol. He slipped out, watching the little pool growing between Chanyeol’s strong legs. There was a sort of satisfaction about it. He could somewhat understand the hunters who liked to stare until Sehun got annoyed. He reached out and dipped a finger into the pool then slipped that finger into Chanyeol to urge more out.

  
  


“S-Sehun..what are you doing?” Chanyeol asked, embarrassment evident in the stutter of Sehun’s name.

  
  


Sehun didn’t look up. He touched the pool again and drew his name on the inside of Chanyeol’s left thigh. “It’s amazing. It just keeps leaking out. I never thought I could come this much. It’s really amazing, hunting.”

  
  


“I...don’t think it’s hunting Sehun.”

  
  


Sehun looked up. Laying there totally mussed with his arms still tied to the ring, Chanyeol looked at him with fondness and a bit of fear and another feeling he seemed to not understand, to have knowledge of. It angered Sehun. He wanted the knowledge to know what that fondness and fear was.

  
  
What did you call it when you liked someone so much it scared you?

**✤**

 

It was Chanyeol’s fault he fell asleep. The Chief of the Resort Area was incorrigible. The man had ignored Sehun all week, not even speaking to Sehun when he let him free from his bed the next morning. He hadn’t seen him since that morning until the party last night. Chief Park had smiled at him when Sehun walked up upon spotting the tall handsome figure among the older men at the party, that same morning glory smile that confused Sehun. He had greeted him the usual way with formalities still awkward on his tongue, but the moment Sehun had slipped his arm into Chanyeol’s, the man slipped away, and for a man so tall, Sehun had a hard time finding him again until the end of the party.

Sehun was already trapped by then.

 

Not that he couldn’t have escaped if he wanted to. He was old enough to choose between prospective partners as it was his last year and many would want to have a taste before Sehun was put off the market. But Chanyeol didn’t show any interest. He didn’t make a move. Sehun wondered if he should have taught Chanyeol those things as well, but honestly all a hunter had to do was keep their son by their side and it was obvious what would occur after.

Perhaps Chanyeol had his eye on other prey.

 

Sehun could imagine Chanyeol like the owls that swooped into the garden at night, awkward looking and unsuspicious until he swooped up his prey in silence, small rodents and such. Sehun wasn’t much of a mouse; he was a snake with a deadly bite if he wished.

 

Sehun had looked around but could see no mouse left by the late hours of the party. He felt the heat in his stomach loosen at that. Large eyes looked at him and he meant them straight back. Sehun’s hunter tugged his arm, whispered words of departure to him and Sehun had only nodded still staring across the ballroom floor at Chanyeol. He started to walk with the man and begged Chanyeol with his eyes. They reached the ballroom doors. Chanyeol took a flute of champagne and turned. Sehun caught the look in his eyes right before – anger and embarrassment. Sehun couldn’t understand it.

 

Chanyeol’s eyes were still burned into Sehun’s memory. The eyes from last night and the eyes from last week. The Chief of Monetary Distribution was an ugly man. He had not even been attractive when he was younger like the President and Sehun’s own father. Sehun had only realized he would be lying beneath him when they got to the man’s door. This was work, nothing exciting about it. He had immediately started to undress and lay on the chief’s bed naked and spread out staring at the canopy above. When weight was added onto the soft downy mattress, he closed his eyes and tried to control his facial muscles as not to show his distaste for the damp touch of the man’s hand on his smooth skin. When the man wrapped those fingers around his member, like always, he felt like throwing up. He had once, the third time after the President. He’d thrown up all over himself, but the man only kept going. He couldn’t remember who it had been, but he had stayed locked up in his room the next party only to get a beating from his father. Sehun had started to keep his stomach empty of everything but champagne on party nights.

 

The nausea was bad though. He felt disgusting and his fingers curled into the sheets. Chanyeol, he started to imagine Chanyeol, the look Chief Park had on his face as Sehun touched him, taught him how to be a gentle hunter. He used those images to keep himself hard and still and when the Chief of Monetary Distribution slid inside him he tried to picture Chanyeol, the awkward embarrassment and lust in his eyes when he did it for the first time. It didn’t feel like Chanyeol, though, but it was enough to make him cum lightly after the man.

 

It was mental and emotional stress that made him fall asleep after and now it was early morning, too early for most of the Uppers to be up.

 

Sehun slipped out of the bed and searched around his room for his shirt and slacks. He checked himself in the mirror and grimaced seeing the red marks on his neck. He faintly remembered the touch of lips there and whispered words of gratitude for finally allowing the man to hunt him. He wanted to scratch the marks off, but he’d have to wait until later and get a nurse to rub them off.

 

He looked rumpled. He wouldn’t be able to hide it, but there would be others running quickly back to their rooms like him. Sehun held himself tall as he walked out of the unfamiliar bedroom to start the trek to his own.

 

These mornings were quiet. Sehun’s eyes fluttered closed every few steps, not even opening when he heard the skitter of smaller feet rush by him. He could understand them, but he couldn’t sympathize with them. Being embarrassed was a waste of time, might as well have pride in the things they were forced to do. The more hunters you had after you, the more connection you made, and the prouder your father would be. By the time your transformation year approached, none of that really mattered, it was just counting down days and going through the motions.

 

Summer was upon them, Sehun only had to wait until winter.

 

“Young Oh?”

 

Sehun’s eyes immediately flashed opened and he felt something get stuck in his throat seeing Chanyeol standing before him carrying a pile of books. For a second there was only surprise, but then he felt a rush of heat crawl up his neck and he immediately looked away.

 

“Ch-chief Park, you’re up early.”

 

“Yes, yes I am. Young Oh you look…well, quite crumpled. Did you have a hard time after the party?”

 

Chanyeol’s voice was flat when he spoke. Previously, Sehun would have thought the man’s words were innocent, but these felt like they held a second meaning.

 

“It’s a Saturday morning, of course I had.” Sehun lifted a hand to run through his hair. It had been sticking up everywhere when he woke up, hairspray giving his usually flat locks odd angles.

 

“Of…of course because you’re a son,” Chanyeol said.

 

Sehun looked up. There was that look in Chanyeol’s eyes that Sehun saw in Luhan’s when other hunters went after Jongin. Usually Luhan would excuse himself from whatever he was doing and slowly push the other hunters away. Sehun always thought it would be suspicious, but being the president’s son, he was allowed favorites, and what son wouldn’t want to make connections with him. To others, Jongin was only sucking up.

 

Jongin had called Luhan out on it during playful banter in class. He’d called it jealousy.

 

“Yes, I’m a son, and because my transformation year is soon, I’m in high demand,” Sehun said, holding his head high and looking at Chanyeol from the tip of his nose. “Now, if you will excuse me, Chief Park, I have to clean up then head out for recreation.”

 

Chanyeol stepped aside and Sehun started past.

 

“Sehun, wait,” Chanyeol said.

 

Sehun immediately froze hearing his name. He glanced around quickly, but didn’t see anyone else besides them in the halls. He turned and stepped closer to Chanyeol.

 

“You can’t just call me like that, you’ll get in trouble,” Sehun said.

 

Chanyeol reached out and grabbed his arm. “If you worry about me, Sehun, then don’t go with hunters after parties.”

 

“You can’t ask me not to do that. It’s a son’s job to make connections,” Sehun said.

 

“Why though?”

 

Why? Sehun thought about it. All the crap that had been dumped into him from his fathers and teachers and all the men he had laid with came to mind, but none of that really answered the question why. “I don’t have the answer for that. It’s not a son’s duty to ask questions.”

 

“Sehun, please, if you don’t understand it, then just don’t do it. You’re almost an adult now, aren’t you, do you really have to continue with it.”

He had thought about that, about trying to get away, but he had a name amongst the sons. “I’m far too good at this to get away so easily. There are too many hunters. I don’t understand why you’re against this after last week.”

 

Chanyeol’s grip on Sehun’s arm tightened and he lowered his head enough that Sehun couldn’t see his face even from his slightly shorter stance. “You think I let you do something like that because of this stupid hunting game? Please Sehun, if you care for me as even just as a friend, don’t lay with others anymore.”

 

Sehun pulled his arm away and took a step back. Chanyeol lifted his head, eyes meeting Sehun’s. The expression in them scared Sehun. There was something similar in them that reminded him of the way Jongin often looked at Luhan when he had to prance around with his wife and Sehun had always thought it was a weird look, but it was even weirder to be the object that look was directed at. His heart started to beat faster in his chest and he could feel a flush creeping up his neck again.

 

“Chanyeol,” Sehun said. He couldn’t think with that look pressed on him. He turned his head and reached up to try and flatten his hair again. “The only way for me not to lay under others is if you hunt me. Even if I’m seconds from leaving the ballroom door, if you approach me, then I can still change my mind from whoever has me then. As a friend, that is the only way I can help you with your request.”

 

“I understand,” Chanyeol said.

 

Sehun looked up. He was surprised to see the sudden change in Chanyeol’s demeanor. The once awkward looking man was suddenly tall and determined. It made Sehun look down. A hand touched his chin and forced him to look up again.

 

His eyes widened feeling lips suddenly press against his own, soft lips and something inside him twisted. Chanyeol pulled away and smiled that morning flower smile at Sehun.

  
  


“I will see you next Friday, Young Oh,” Chanyeol said then held his books back to his chest and headed down the hall leaving Sehun with furrowed brows as he traced his damp lips.

 

 

**✤**

 

“Jinri, your dress is too short,” Sehun commented seeing the secretary’s daughter approach him through the throng of adults. Many stared after and Sehun couldn’t blame them with how high on Jinri’s supple thighs the frills of her puffy white skirt stopped. She looked like a doll, a doll much too old to be a doll.

 

“Well, if they’re going to stare I might as well give them something to stare at,” Jinri said and plucked the flute of champagne Sehun had been drinking from his fingers. She started to drink it down in a quick messy fashion, gold drops dribbling down her chin and long white neck. Sehun reached out and wiped one away.

 

“You’re being awfully erotic today,” Sehun said and licked his thumb missing his champagne. It had been a great comfort as he tried to ignore contemplative eyes. Sleeping with the Chief of Monetary Distribution had been a bad play on his part. He needed someone of higher standing to get back his place on top of the pyramids of sons. Even if he hated such a place, the lowest or highest was the only place to be.

 

“I don’t believe you can refer to this as being erotic, I just don’t care anymore about any of this.” Jinri wiped her lips with the back of her hand smearing the red lipstick. Sehun handed her a napkin.

 

“It’s not like you to be so unladylike. You’re upset.”

 

“It’s good of you to notice,” Jinri said and turned to the window Sehun stood in front of to dab at the smeared red. “I had a sleepover with the president’s daughter, the younger one, last night.”

 

“A sleepover or a ‘sleep over’?” Sehun asked.

 

“I thought it was the first since we have been such good acquaintances, but apparently the second. Just the memories give me shivers. I can still feel her cunt on my tongue.”

 

“My dear Jinri, to think you actually participated in such a thing,” Sehun said and chuckled. A lower Upper son passed by with a tray and he quickly picked out champagne among the flutes, sighing once he had another swallow of the liquid down his throat.

 

“It’s not as if I had much of a choice. I have pride of my pure daughter status; I can’t have just anyone touching me. She seemed satisfied with just that and now I know certainly that I have no inclination towards girls or women. I’ll be faithful to my husband even if he does sleep with little boys.”

 

Sehun lifted his glass to his friend. “That’s quite admirable of you.”

 

Jinri gave him a sarcastic smile and leaned against the window. “I’ll be engaged when our transformation year comes.”

“That’s right; we’re of the same age.”

 

“You would forget something like that. I saw some of the potential candidates,” Jinri said and looked around. Sehun followed her eyes and stopped on Luhan twittering among younger adults with Jongin standing solemnly at his side.

“Jongin was on it as are you.”

 

Sehun nodded. “I understand my name being there, but Jongin is not high enough. Plus, he’s only slept with Luhan as far as men go.”

 

“And you don’t think sleeping with the President’s son is enough?” Jinri asked with a laugh in her voice.

 

“Jongin would be the better choice. He looks strong, but he’s actually as they use to say ‘a big softy’.”

 

“I agree, but he’s not the one whose parents will be pressuring him to marry quickly. Krystal’s also approaching her transformation year and between her and me—”

 

“Oh dear lord, you, definitely you, Jinri,” Sehun said and quickly took a long sip of his champagne. “I couldn’t fathom being forced in a place the President may or may not have touched with…with that…thing.”

 

“I’m under the impression that he hasn’t gone that far with the younger daughter. It’s the older one that’s his lover,” Jinri said.

 

Sehun nodded and took another sip, slower. “You know I wouldn’t touch you though, right?”

 

“Of course, but you would have to go with me to the medics. I’m afraid the doctor would rape me to get me pregnant since they don’t get much time outside their labs to lay with sons and the such.”

 

“Does anyone really rape in this day and age.”

 

Jinri suddenly moved before Sehun and looked at him seriously. “What do you call what the President did to you, what all the sons are put through?”

 

Rape. “I just…It’s our duty.”

 

Jinri hummed and turned away from Sehun. “As it was the duty of the soldiers from the time before our city to kill each other, but it’s still called murder in our books.”

 

Sehun finished his drink. “You contemplate things deeply, Jinri, but I can’t say I’m surprised.”

 

“And you hardly think at all, I do say that is the difference between getting what you want and giving people what they want. Now I’ll excuse myself, I can only handle one of you for today and I have dances lined up with the mothers of potential suitors.” Jinri handed Sehun her empty flute just as Luhan made his way over and took her place.

 

“Seems you’re playing well,” Luhan said taking the empty flutes and putting them on a passing tray.

 

“She’s easy to play with, good use of words.”

 

Luhan sighed. “Indeed, I should have waited and married her instead.”

 

“She’s a good wife for someone who has no interest in sleeping with their wife. And how is your wife, Luhan.”

 

“How would I know? The only agreement I have with her is she doesn’t sleep with people outside the marriage.”

 

“Yes, yes, but doesn’t she get lonely…uh..what’s her name again?” Sehun asked.

 

Luhan made a face. “Kim…”

 

“First name my dear friend,” Sehun said and grinned.

 

“I don’t remember. We only had sex during my transformation year and I always went to find Jongin right after. She has her books so she’s not lonely. I made sure to pick a wife that liked being on her own.”

 

Always running off to Jongin. Sehun barely remembered that year. Jongin would only allow women to take him to bed.

 

Honestly, Sehun didn’t know of any other male Jongin had been with. He wasn’t even sure of whom the person who christened Jongin into the son’s duty was.

 

“I really don’t understand your guys’ situation. Why are you so stuck together? Even if Jongin doesn’t sleep with other men, since you’re the President’s son he still gets good standing, is that why? You are a bit of a charitable guy, Luhan.”

Luhan’s face softened and his gaze stayed across the ballroom where Jongin talked with other sons. “That’s not it. It’s something only we and the Lowers would understand.”

 

“Why would you want to understand the same things as the Lowers?” Sehun asked and flexed his fingers. He wanted another flute of champagne to fiddle with.

 

Luhan scoffed. “Oh come now, Sehun, don’t act so hypocritical. You don’t care about the ideals of the Uppers.”

 

“Then explain what it is between you two. You’re always staring at each other weird and the flirting doesn’t follow the guidelines of a son and an adult.”

 

“When have we ever followed the guidelines of a son and an adult? I’ve been having sex with Jongin before anyone even knew we could cum.” Luhan picked up a flute and put it in Sehun’s twitching fingers. It was juice, Sehun could just tell by the low density of bubbles floating around.

 

“Listen well, Young Oh Sehun. The thing between Jongin and I is love, simple and perhaps not so pure love—the thing that started and ended wars, the thing that made brave men weak and weak men strong. Love.”

 

Sehun stared at his older friend blinking. He slowly lifted his juice to his lips and let some of the ultra sweet liquid flow down his tongue and throat. “I never thought I would hear such a word from my linguistics teacher used so seriously.”

 

Luhan reached out and ruffled his hair. “I would hope you never come to use that word seriously, yourself. It’s dangerous.”

 

“Young Oh!”

 

Sehun’s head popped up hearing the low call of his name. Across the see of balding heads and black ties a mop of curled brown-orange hair showed like a flower above shining teeth. Sehun blinked then looked toward Luhan, handing his flute back.

 

“I have work to do,” he said.

 

Luhan sipped the drink. “Finally picking your own hunters I see. He’s quite charming, teach him well.”

 

Sehun bowed his head and started into the throng of black tuxedos. He gave polite smiles to the men he passed by, greeting them, taking their words of encouragement in his studies hesitantly and avoided their hands as they reached out for him. Chanyeol was only a few people away. He stopped when he felt that large hand almost the same size as his own wrap around his wrist and tug him forward. Turning, he was met with a handsome smile, not bright, but it was pleasing. The man’s face was only slightly distorted in a way Sehun would think charming and he wondered if

 

Chanyeol was on Jinri’s list of possible husbands.

 

“Young Oh, would you mind accompanying me around the ballroom tonight.”

 

Sehun studied Chanyeol’s face, saw the uneasiness swirling within the resolve to do as Sehun had suggested the previous week. He grinned and used his free arm to wrap himself around Chanyeol’s arm that still held him at the wrist. He pressed himself a bit closer and looked around catching the curious eyes of other possible hunters then finally met Chanyeol’s.

 

“It would be my pleasure Chief Park.”

 

Chanyeol let go of Sehun’s wrist and held his arm firmly together with Sehun’s. He guided them to a group of younger adults that still held high positions and Sehun let out a sigh of relief. It was good that he had talked to Chanyeol before. His father had wanted him to keep the Chief of the Resort Area under his wing and in doing so he appeared as a good son making good connections for his father and the incident with the Chief of Monetary Distribution would be over looked. Also, Chanyeol wouldn’t be so crossed with him. At least Sehun hoped, but he wondered if Chanyeol would have the courage to bring him to bed or if it would be like that first night again left outside the door to Chanyeol’s wing of the mansion.

 

Sehun stifled yawns continuously through the conversations Chanyeol had. They were much brighter than the ones said during talks with the adults his father’s age, but Sehun still could not find the interest to follow. It wasn’t intellectual, mostly talks about things they wanted and occasionally about potential wives in which Chanyeol seemed to shy away from.

 

“It seems our Young Oh is tired,” one of the men pointed out when Sehun gave a particularly loud yawn without time to cover it up.

 

He smiled and bowed. “I apologize. Self study took well into the night. I wanted to get a bit ahead.”

 

“Of course, the things we learn of our own accord are more important than the ones our instructors give us. You should study as long as you like.”

 

Sehun bowed again then turned to look Chanyeol in the eye giving him a slight shake of his head. Chanyeol nodded seeming to understand.

 

“My studies have been keeping me up as well,” Chanyeol said. “There’s so much to learn about the city that I wasn’t taught in the resort. I’ll take this as my parting for the night. If you’ll excuse me, I shall be escorting Young Oh to bed and take my own leave.”

 

The men nodded shortly to each other and Sehun stayed close as Chanyeol began to lead him out of the room.

 

“You made your intentions quite obvious there,” Sehun commented.

 

“Are my intentions not obvious with you on my elbow?” Chanyeol shot back.

 

“You’ve led me out before without taking the full course the balls have to offer.”

 

Chanyeol glanced down at Sehun. “I could leave you now, too, and you wouldn’t be able to lay under another, correct. I’ve already brought you out; it would look bad if I went back.”

 

“True, but I don’t believe you intend to only eat a half meal. You want the full course, don’t you? You have to finish the hunt.”

 

Chanyeol brought them to the main doors of his hall and paused. He turned to Sehun, large eyes showing more uneasiness than before. “If you’re willing to help guide me, I would very much like to keep you tonight.”

 

Sehun grinned and reached out for the door pushing it opened. “I’m more than willing to help a friend, Chanyeol.”

 

Once the door was opened, Chanyeol quickly led them down the hall to his bedroom. It was a small room compared to others Sehun had visited and even smaller to his own and Sehun was surprised as Chanyeol’s study and garden room had been the size he expected. He was taken out of his thoughts when he was pushed down onto the large canopy bed against one wall of the room. He scooted himself back against the headboard of the bed and let out a surprised sound when one of his wrists was suddenly held against the headboard, touching the metal ring that always accompanied the men’s and sons’ beds. Sehun looked at Chanyeol surprised as the older man began to pull his tie off with his free hand.

 

Sehun chuckled. “You don’t have to tie me up, Chanyeol. I won’t run.”

 

Chanyeol paused. “You did me.”

 

Sehun easily pulled his wrist free and started to unbutton his shirt. “That’s because you would have run.”

 

Chanyeol looked away then nodded. He looked about the room, tie falling from its loosened position around his neck to curl on the bed like a snake. Sehun clicked his tongue and sat up on the bed after removing his pants, undergarment useless on party nights. He reached out, grabbing Chanyeol by the collar and made the older man looked at him.

 

“You’re still nervous; do I have to show you what you’re supposed to do again?” Sehun asked.

 

Chanyeol pressed a hand to Sehun’s soft stomach, lust flashing in his eyes when he looked at Sehun. “You could do what you did last time. Being in charge, it’s a bit uncomfortable.”

 

Sehun hummed and leaned in kissing along Chanyeol’s jaw. He wasn’t really one for kissing his hunter but it had been asked of him before especially when he was younger. He moved to Chanyeol’s ear and whispered into it, “You need to know how to be a hunter, Park Chanyeol, so be a hunter tonight.”

 

Sehun moved back on the bed, leaning against the headboard lazily with his legs spread out. “There’s lube in the dresser, I’m sure you found it when you first moved in.”

 

Chanyeol scrambled off the bed, long limbs entangling with messy sheets and grabbed the lube from the dresser then situated himself between Sehun’s legs. Sehun helped guide him in preparation, each long finger pushing into his abused hole. He had the quick thought to wonder if it was attractive. Chanyeol’s had been, pink and twitching and small, but Sehun had been the first to use it. Sehun’s hole had years of experience.

 

Chanyeol’s fingers were so long and he curled them perfectly every time Sehun told him too. He hadn’t felt so much pleasure in prep in a long time. He hadn’t felt the excitement in his stomach since the week before when he had taken Chanyeol. “Put it in now.”

 

Chanyeol pushed in and Sehun groaned, back arching at the sting. His hands moved and clutched at the sleeves of

Chanyeol’s dress shirt and he tried to keep his eyes open.

 

“Are…are you alright?” Chanyeol asked voice huskier than usual. It sent shivers through Sehun’s body.

 

“Yeah, how about you?”

 

“You’re tight, it feels good.”

 

Sehun chuckled and shifted his hips. “Good, now move.”

 

Chanyeol pulled out and then back in. Sehun’s nails dug deeper into his sleeves and he felt them sink into the skin of Chanyeol’s arms. Chanyeol felt different inside him. He felt heavy and good, sliding into him with just enough gentleness, yet he was still rough and Sehun let out a heavy moan when Chanyeol grazed a spot deep inside him.

 

“Ch-Chanyeol!”

 

Chanyeol’s thrusts sped up and he moved forward, face burying into Sehun’s neck. His warm breath hit sensitive spots and Sehun could barely breathe. It was like the last time again—pleasure so good Sehun couldn’t understand why he had never felt it before. Chanyeol lifted himself and stared down at Sehun. Sehun tried to keep his eyes opened and give Chanyeol encouragement with them. He’d be a sweet hunter to the younger sons that were still blooming. He gasped when he felt Chanyeol’s lips descend on his, a tongue eagerly delving into his mouth. Sweet low moans filled Sehun’s ears and his heart thumped faster. He tried to kiss back. Out of all the things Sehun could do with his mouth, he had yet to learn what a kiss was really for. Chanyeol’s lips were gentle, not a demanding takeover of his mouth like his previous hunters did. He almost seemed to be asking for Sehun’s help, for an anchor. Sehun moved his tongue against Chanyeol’s giving him that anchor.

 

Chanyeol came first. Sehun hadn’t really expected anything different. He could feel it spill inside him and shivered. Chanyeol made a whining sound, but Sehun snapped his legs around the other’s hips and milked him through his orgasm, moving one hand to stroke himself until he came as well between their bodies.

 

It was almost as good as when he had come inside Chanyeol.

 

Sehun let Chanyeol pull out. The older man moved beside Sehun and pulled him into a hug, nuzzling into Sehun’s neck. “Don’t lay with anyone else.”

 

Sehun sighed and scooted back. He couldn’t stay there all night, but he was feeling tired. “I won’t as long as you hunt me.”

 

Chanyeol’s lips grazed Sehun’s neck. “I’ll hunt you all your life, Oh Sehun.”

 

“I won’t be a son all my life.”

 

Chanyeol’s arms wrapped around his middle. “Stay here with me tonight.”

 

“I can’t.”

 

“Then stay until I fall asleep. I want to hold you.”

 

Sehun shifted a bit and sighed again. He would probably end up falling asleep if he waited that long. “Alright.”

  
  


“I love you, Oh Sehun.”

 

**✤**

 

Dangerous words. Just as Luhan had said. They rang in Sehun’s ears for months, freshened on weekends lounging in Chanyeol’s study or garden eating those bitter fruits or as he laid in Chanyeol’s bed on party nights with the elder whispering in his ear as he dozed off. And Sehun would count down each second it took for the elder to fall asleep and then each hour until his transformation year.

 

It came after lazy days listening to Luhan drone on about words Sehun would never need to use in his adult life, just as snow began to fall on the Upper’s mansion, no longer blocked off by the wall that had been built around the city years before that only the Lowers and those in the Resort Area ever saw the other side of. It was late winter, still a couple months shy of Sehun’s official nineteenth birthday, but for all those sons who would see their nineteenth year before the next snowfall, it was a blessed day.

 

Just like all usual parties, the Transformation Day party was held on a Friday. The sons that were the guest of honor dressed in bright colored tuxes to attract one last connection, the most important connection, brandishing all they had just like those cocky male birds Luhan had showed him and Jongin on their last lesson. It was the most important connection of their life as a son, and Sehun stood in front of his long mirror staring at the corner of his mirror where he could see his father tapping away at a binder tablet as Sehun was situated into his tuxedo by designers who had been pushing pins into his skin for the past two weeks in preparation of the night.

 

Sehun lifted his arms when they were done. The material of his jacket and blouse was a bit tight, but still allowed him enough room to move. It was his pants that were the problem. They molded to his legs and bottom leaving nothing to the imagination and no room for underwear if Sehun had been in the habit of wearing undergarments to parties. If he dared to sit down, the seam would probably rip (which would undoubtedly happen to a few unlucky boys) and his bare ass would be privy to eyes all during the party, which could possibly be a good thing for a son who was much too low on the ladder to get a step up if his ass caught the attention of an adult looking for easy access, but for someone like

Sehun, it’d be disgraceful. The pants only had to allow him room to lay down and if the seam ripped when he spread his legs, so be it.

 

His father stood when one of the servants announced Sehun was done. He filed the binder away in his coat pocket and came to stand behind Sehun in the mirror. Sehun’s father adjusted the red silk of his collar then patted his shoulders and smiled. “You’re to become a man after tonight. You’ve done well in all I’ve asked of you so far. I’ve been talking to Chief Park and with his great favor with you, it’s been easy to convince him to see things on my side, though he does hesitate to agree to some things, so we’re still at a stalemate.”

 

“Shall I persuade him one last time, Father?” Sehun asked. He didn’t quite understand all of what his father was asking.

 

Head Oh patted his son’s shoulders and moved away. “No, I want you to get the President’s favor.”

 

Sehun froze. He stared at himself in the mirror, but instead of the young man in a fire red tuxedo, he saw that little boy dressed up in white for the first time staring at the middle aged President with fear as he stared back with disgusting lust. And the President was so old now. Sehun’s skin started to crawl.

 

“Is there a need, Father?” Sehun asked voice quiet.

 

Head Oh raised a brow at him. “You’re right to think there isn’t, but whoever you spend tonight with, Sehun, will have luck for another year. You’re the prize of this lot’s sons; whoever has you tonight will be honored. Don’t you think the President deserves that honor?”

 

Sehun licked his lips and finally looked away from the mirror and adjusted his white tie, eyes focused on the knot.

 

“And if I believe someone is more worthy of such an honor, Father, am I allow to lie with him?”

 

He could feel his father’s frown on him, but did not look up until Head Oh spoke.

 

“You’re questioning me, Sehun.”

 

Sehun looked up and met his father’s eyes. He was questioning. He didn’t often do so. When he had first turned eighteen he had had no intention of ever questioning his father; he wanted an easy transition, and it had been easy after the small tiff with Park Chanyeol. But, he wasn’t going to be eighteen for much longer and this was his last night.

 

“I’ll be questioning you for now on, Father.”

 

It was a bold statement. He wondered if his father would hit him. He had on the occasion before. There was no heavy impact against Sehun’s face, only a rough squeeze to his arm. He looked up at his father seeing him angry. He had only got away because Sehun needed to be perfect at the party, no bruise or swelling.

 

“Choose who you will, Sehun, but don’t shy away if the President shows interest.”

 

Sehun pulled away and bowed deeply as his father left his dressing room.

 

An hour later, Sehun emerged into the party along with the rest of the sons. He stood beside Jongin, who was dressed in

a gold tuxedo, a color much too rich for his family’s standing in society, but Sehun supposed Luhan had purchased it for him as a sign he was the next president’s pet. Not that it was one hundred percent set Luhan would take over after his father. It was not what Luhan said, a monarchy, but Sehun knew Luhan had little fear anyone would try to run against him when his father passed. And there would be Jongin, ready to do all Luhan’s dirty work. It was what made Sehun doubt what Luhan called their relationship—Love—when everything between was set up so perfectly politically.

 

There were many more eyes on the long line of young men and even more eyes on the daughters that sat before the sons who would accompany them during their transformation year. Sehun could see Jinri a couple seats to the left of where he stood in a nude color dress that was similar to the blush and off-white color of the other daughters coming of age. The President’s youngest daughter sat beside her looking out at the sea of men and women with disgust. For once, Sehun could sympathize with her.

 

The sea of white behind the adults was calm for once. Most of the sons back there would get away for one night without feeling the disgusting shit moving in and out of their back sides. The sons lined up had to take someone to bed that night, even if they cheated and laid with a woman like Luhan had done during his transformation year. Sehun briefly wondered if he should do the same and just forget about the nightmare of the President and the curse of Chanyeol’s sweet pillow side lullaby.

 

A group of Lowers were invited to perform a few dances and acts and then it was just like any normal party with Sehun leaning against his usual windowsill sipping champagne and watching his friends interact. It wasn’t until he caught a whiff of the President that he straightened himself and tried not to cough as the burning liquid went down the wrong way. He didn’t want to bring anymore attention to himself, but it was difficult when being the only one dressed in such a rich red and he understood why his father had ordered such a snobby color for him. He glanced over once and he was twelve years old again, hiding every time the President walked into the same room as him. For once he wanted to curse his father for making him even think about it. He needed a hunter.

Sehun quickly moved himself from his windowsill and made his way as if headed toward Luhan, not an odd thing for him to do, it was no secret he and the President’s son were friends and might have even explained why the President seemed to ease off on his chase for just a few moments. The President could always find an excuse to talk to his son while Sehun was still there. Sehun walked slowly as if it was difficult getting through the crowd, but he continued to glance around for anyone that would be willing to take the President’s prey.

Suddenly, there was a hand on his arm and Sehun wanted to scream. The fingers pressed into his upper arm and he knew that squeeze, it was the same one Chanyeol did when he took too long or became too shy to take Sehun properly and so he would hold onto Sehun’s arm as the younger mounted him from above and remembered their first time when it was Sehun inside Chanyeol and he’d start counting the seconds again until he was allowed the take the position he wanted to.

 

Chanyeol dragged him away from where Sehun had been headed toward Luhan to engage in friendly banter with younger adults. Sehun happily clung to Chanyeol’s arm and listened intently to the conversation. He needed to anchor his thought to a place where the President couldn’t reach now that his body had found an anchor clinging to the Chief of the Resort Area. He also needed a head start, filing words the elder boys said into the back of his mind to look up later when he was allowed into the adult study rooms.

 

The party was merry after the initial scare. Sehun knew his father would not be happy with him, but Sehun would rather spend his night with Park Chanyeol over the President. He’d rather sleep with the Chief of Monetary Distribution or even Jinri’s father than sleep with the President. Sehun decided staring at Chanyeol’s face was much more successful from keeping him from remembering that night almost seven years ago. His side profile was beautiful and Sehun wondered, if Chanyeol had had a sister, she might have looked unbelievably similar. But, there was something handsome about him, too. He had a playful charm that amazed Sehun; it always did when they were alone together during Sehun’s free time. Somewhere deep in Sehun’s chest, he knew that charm would be non-existent had Chanyeol grew up as a proper son.

 

Chanyeol pulled him to the side after some time. Sehun could feel him looking up and down and when he glanced at Chanyeol, he was blushing.

 

“All the sons wear such things on their last night as a son,” he explained. “We’re supposed to flaunt ourselves to potential allies in the government as well as potential wives.”

 

“Like peacocks?” Chanyeol asked.

 

At first Sehun did not understand the word, but a smile grew on his face and he nodded. “I was trying to remember the name for the bird. I had that thought earlier.”

 

Chanyeol laughed. “You look more like a cardinal.”

 

Sehun looked at him curiously. “What is a cardinal?”

 

Chanyeol frowned. “Has Young Oh never seen a real life bird?”

 

Sehun searched around the ballroom and saw Jinri entertaining suitors with a fake smile as she sat daintily in her seat.

“Secretary Choi’s daughter once had a small yellow one she found…canary? It grew into an ugly white thing that made loud noises when the sun rose. The kitchen staff came to take it away.”

 

“That would be a chicken,” Chanyeol said. “Did you happen to have chicken the next day?”

 

Sehun felt a bit horrified as he nodded. “I’ve never seen an undead chicken before.”

 

Chanyeol chuckled and Sehun felt embarrassed instead.

 

“They have peacocks and chickens in the Resort Area,” Chanyeol explained.

 

Sehun nodded, stomach making an odd noise when he wondered if they ate the peacocks with the chickens.

 

“There are lots of animals in the Resort Area.”

 

“That sounds…dirty,” Sehun decided. Dirty and intriguing.

 

Chanyeol smiled, that morning glory smile, at Sehun. It had become hard not to return it. Sehun felt his own cheeks lift and wondered when he started to genuinely smile back. Was it that one time in Chanyeol’s garden when he had tripped on a runaway berry only to end up with his face in Sehun’s lap and flushed red? Was it when Sehun had pulled him close on a night when Chanyeol had the hang of his thrusts and he smiled hearing Sehun moan?

 

“I suppose I still can’t ask you to dance,” Chanyeol said.

 

Sehun almost didn’t hear him. He blinked then nodded. “Men don’t dance.”

 

“They do in the Resort Area, though I have to say; only the natives are good at it. Especially the mating dance.”

 

Sehun laughed at that. “The Upper’s mating dance consists of us just walking around looking pretty.”

 

“I don’t think that’s quite considered mating,” Chanyeol said, but he put his hand over Sehun’s that was wrapped around his arm and lowered his voice. “I’d happily mate with you, Young Oh.”

 

“Well, then you’re lucky you have me on your arm right now. This is the last night I ‘mate’ with any man.”

 

Chanyeol smiled again. “So you’ll spend the night with me?”

 

Sehun nodded and looked away from the beaming look in Chanyeol’s eyes. He turned his attention to the dance floor where the wives and daughters danced with the exceptions of those in their transformation year who still sat on their chairs like dolls on a display case. It was a flurry of white and a full rainbow of color. The music was loud and fast paced and Sehun wondered how the girls could follow the steps so well. Chanyeol started to lead him along again, but he didn’t pay attention to where they were going, eyes still focused on the whirling dresses of the women. Their skirts lifted in the frenzy of the dance, even the longest ones, flashing milky thighs. And when they dipped, flashes of large light brown nipples hidden by barely there necklines. Briefly, Sehun wondered where his own mother was. When was the last time he’d caught a glance of her on the dance floor? He hadn’t talked to her since he’d seen her and Jinri’s mother having a ‘sleep-over’ after he’d comeback from being hunted by the Chief of Financial Affairs when he was fourteen.

 

And just like that night, there was a woman’s scream. Sehun thought he was only remembering his own mother’s pleasured one, but there was no pleasure echoing in this one. He turned away from the whirling dancing seconds before it stopped along with the music. Everyone’s attention was turned toward the center of the dance floor where someone was laying on the ground.

 

“Where’s the Head of Healing?” a man yelled.

 

The crowd parted to allow the Head of Healing and his chiefs and other medics that had found time to come to the party that night through the crowd. One passed by them allowing space enough for Sehun to see who lay on the ground, convulsing. It was the Chief of Monetary Distribution, the man Sehun had finally slept with more than six months ago. He looked green, veins popping in his neck and there was foam dribbling from his mouth. He heard Chanyeol gasp then felt his arm slip away from where it held close around Sehun’s arm to hurry after the medics. Sehun didn’t immediately register it until they had moved the chief off to the side after he’d passed out from his convulsions, Chanyeol helping out, that Sehun was no longer safe. The President announced everything was fine and that they should continue on with the party. Then his old eyes landed on Sehun, bright red standing out in the sea of black and white. His heart started to race in his chest and he looked around seeing gold not too far in the corner.

 

Sehun moved and clung to Jongin’s arm. If he could just wait here for Chanyeol to come find him again, everything would be alright.

 

“Oh, Sehun,” Luhan said from his spot standing beside Jongin.

 

Sehun could feel his friend and his companion looking at him strangely, but did not meet their eyes. He didn’t want them to know he was afraid. “What happened, Luhan?”

 

“Well, Sehun, it seems the Chief of Monetary Distribution hasn’t been feeling well for some months now. His son just admitted to having seen him throwing up many of times when visiting. They thought perhaps he’d just gotten into the habit of overeating and had acquired a large ulcer. There’s not much the medics can do if a person insists on eating so much. But, I’ve never seen someone have a seizure from an ulcer before,” Luhan said. “But maybe it’s something else. The Elder Fathers don’t like going to the medics more than once a year. I know my father just went after two years.”

Sehun nodded then he felt that presence coming closer. He moved and wrapped his arm with Luhan’s.

 

“What are you doing? I hope your father didn’t get it in your head you should spend your last night with the President’s son. You know I plan to spend tonight with Jongin,” Luhan said matter-of-factly.

 

“He wants me to lay with your father,” Sehun said, voice small. He could see the President out of the corner of his eye.

 

Neither Luhan nor Jongin said anything. Sehun looked up to see sympathy on their face. Luhan knew how Sehun felt towards his father and perhaps he had told Jongin.

 

“You’re…not going to help me?” Sehun asked.

 

“I…can not take my father’s prey,” Luhan said finally.

 

Sehun understood, he truly did, but that didn’t help the betrayal he felt when that hand, still the same as it had been almost seven years ago, clamped itself down on his shoulder.

 

“Young Oh, where has Chief Park run off to?” the President asked. “He was with you up until now.”

 

Sehun could feel sweat on his brow. “He…ran to help with the incident that previously…h-happened.”

 

“What a good Samaritan,” the President said and lowered his hand from Sehun’s shoulder to low on his waist. “Such a good man he is, giving up his own joy at the party to help with a sick man.”

 

The President’s fingers dug into Sehun’s side. He thought the President was a sick man indeed, though he wasn’t sure why. All adults did what he had, that was how their society worked.

 

“I’ll take Young Oh, now, son,” the President said to Luhan and Jongin.

 

Luhan stood there looking as if he wanted to pull Sehun away, but there were too many people around for him to show such an act of defiance even if he was already an adult. Sehun saw Jongin grab Luhan’s wrist and hold it tight in some sort of comfort, but what did Luhan need comforting for? It’s not like it could be helped. This was it; this was the last night Sehun had to endure this. After tonight, he could choose to never engage in sex again.

 

The President pulled Sehun toward the huge opened doors of the ballroom. They had moved the Chief of Monetary Distribution close by until they could get a stretcher down here. Sehun tried not to look at them as he was led out of the room, but he could feel when Chanyeol looked up. He closed his eyes and took deep breaths. If he just closed his eyes through this whole thing, he could get through it.

 

“Sehun.”

 

Sehun’s chest felt like it was folding in on itself hearing his name. It wasn’t called, basically a whisper that his ears were sensitive to. He turned his head and opened his eyes. Chanyeol stood there looking at him wide eyed with his arm in a weird stretched out gesture as if reaching for Sehun. And Sehun knew he wouldn’t be okay. Fear showed in his eyes brighter than the red of his clothes.

 

The doors closed behind them. The President grumbled every time Sehun’s feet faltered as they headed to the President’s suite. He had never been in the man’s bedroom, having had his first experience in the chair behind the President’s desk, but he didn’t bother looking up when he did. There was another person in the room, a woman by the smell of the perfume and Sehun didn’t have to guess to know it was the President’s elder ‘daughter’. She laughed seeing him and he felt numb.

 

Sehun undressed at the President’s command and lay back on the bed. His daughter ran her fingers through Sehun’s hair making baby noises at him as if he was a child. She was naked. He could feel her enhanced breasts pressing into his cheek as he laid there. The President stood to the side and watched as she began touching Sehun. Sehun laid there like a plank with a lever that acted as it was willed to by the President’s daughter’s fingers. And then she slid on like a slimy disgusting leech and Sehun missed him. He missed Chanyeol and the rough tight warmth that had been his virginity. He missed sliding in and out of the older man as he made all those faces and sounds for the first time, faces and sounds only Sehun had ever seen.

 

He came dry into the President’s daughter, but he didn’t think she noticed with how wet she was, a disgusting leaking mess and Sehun knew why he had never preferred to sleep with women. Then the President climbed onto the bed. He took his ‘daughter’ right over Sehun as she pressed her breasts into Sehun’s face. He almost wished they’d suffocate him, but that would be a pathetic death and Sehun had never wished to die before. That was until he felt the President slide into him, no prep, just rough and covered in his ‘daughter’s’ juices.

Sehun’s body curled up on itself. His stomach did flops and he felt bile rise when he realized there was no way he could get away from the pounding in his ass without disgracing himself and his father. And why did he care about disgrace again? He would have thrown up multiple times if it wasn’t for the President’s daughter riding his face and Sehun did his job there because it was the only thing that kept his mind busy from what was happening below, who was below.

 

It felt wrong. Not like the wrong Sehun usually felt when he was hunted and did his job like a good son. It felt wrong because for the past six months he had only tasted the crevices of one body, and only felt the thrusts of one body, and only heard the deep and beautiful song of moans from the vocals of one body.

Sehun passed out before they were through with him. When he woke up in the morning surrounded by both their naked forms with a lower Upper messenger knocking at the door, he learned two things: the Chief of Monetary Distribution had died and that he was, outrageous as it seemed, in love with Park Chanyeol.

 

 

**✤**

 

Sehun locked himself in his chambers for months. Which was fairly easy considering the lack of schedule given during your transformation year. Any studying was done on your own terms and you weren’t allowed to enter the usual parties. It allowed for the bruises of his night with the president and his daughter to fade slowly each week. He barely remembered getting most of them, but when he ran his fingers along a few, the pressure bringing a satisfied sort of pain that numbed his mind, he got flickers of what had caused them—the President’s hand, a leather whip, a pole—things Sehun remembered seeing in the closet of the President’s office after his first initial penetration those years ago.

 

He had refused to meet anyone. Luhan had come often, even sending Jongin at times, and Jinri stopped by a couple times according to a servant. And Chanyeol. Almost every day. The only one who had made it in was Sehun’s father who had pushed through the servants expressing Sehun’s wishes to be alone and pulled up a chair close to the bed Sehun laid naked and moping in. His father looked up at him (but he wasn’t really looking _at_ him or he would have seen the bruises covering his son’s body and the misery on Sehun’s face) with a smile placed on his face, the smile meant he was here to talk business.

 

“The President has been sick lately. It seems with old age, colds are harder to get rid of and come more frequently, but he’s more compliant when sick. I’ve finally gotten him to offer his youngest daughter’s hand to the son of my choosing, but I’ve also agreed to Secretary Choi for Jinri to be your wife. I’ll let you make the decision between the two,” his father had said.

 

“Jinri,” Sehun answered without a second thought.

 

“I thought so since you two are friends. I’ll send the President’s offer to Chief Park. Since I’m his boss and he has no father, he’ll have to take my wishes into consideration.”

 

His father had stood and left before Sehun could say more. Chanyeol would marry the President’s youngest daughter.

 

He lifted a hand to his chest where a bruise from the President’s eldest daughter’s fist pounding on that spot as she rode him and her father was healing.

 

Sehun wanted to stop loving Park Chanyeol, not because he was afraid of such feelings and thought they were useless, but because he had left him that night.

 

It was on his true nineteenth birthday that Sehun finally emerged from his room. The weather was warm now, and after a fresh bath, he wanted to see outside in the gardens, see the morning glories and the other flowers he’d never bothered learning the names of. He sat on the grass, not caring that his breeches got stained, and plucked the purple closed buds from their stems, throwing the petals in the air and watching them float away. He didn’t know how long he sat there until footsteps finally broke through the soft hum the creatures that escaped the pesticides created. He grabbed a handful of the petals and threw them in the direction of the approaching person. There was a familiar gasp and sputter as if the petals had landed in the person’s mouth. Sehun’s heart lurched and he stood up intending to quickly get away.

 

Chanyeol’s hand grabbed his before he could get more than a couple steps.

 

“Sehun…you…have you been getting enough sleep, Young Oh?”

 

Sehun wanted to laugh. It was silly that a question about his health would be the first thing said between them after all this time. But still, he could feel the heat from Chanyeol’s hand burning into his arm and he wished to feel it pressing into his back and his chest and his hair.

 

“Why do you ask?”

 

Chanyeol let go of Sehun’s arm and Sehun almost reached out, missing that warmth.

 

“Your eyes seemed bruised.”

 

“That’s because they are.”

 

Chanyeol’s face looked horrified. “What do you mean? Who hit you?”

 

“The President and his daughter,” Sehun answered. “That night…when you left me.”

 

“I…”Chanyeol started. “Why would he do something like that?”

 

“Because he can, but that doesn’t matter.”

 

“Is this why you haven’t been seeing me?” Chanyeol asked.

 

“I haven’t been seeing anyone, Chanyeol, but especially not you.” He looked up and stared at the other man’s face. He remembered how Chanyeol looked when the President pulled him out of the ballroom and it hurt. “You left me; you left me even though I was so scared to go with him.”

 

Chanyeol looked away guiltily. “I was going to come right back for you. I thought you didn’t want the President because he was old…I…I didn’t know you were so scared of him.”

 

“He was my first, Chanyeol, I was barely twelve,” Sehun admitted.

 

A look of utter disbelief crossed Chanyeol’s face. He almost looked as if he’d throw up from shock. “Twelve! How…how can the Uppers here do such a thing?”

 

“I don’t understand what you mean, Chanyeol, twelve is a perfectly normal age in which to start performing your duties as a son…still…” The memories were fresh. He couldn’t help but hate it. “If you don’t mind, I would like to return to my room and rest. I’m not use to the warm weather yet.”

 

Chanyeol reached out and grabbed Sehun’s arm again. “Please Sehun, stay and talk to me. I love you.”

 

Sehun turned and looked at Chanyeol. He looked…younger than Sehun, like a child that had stayed up too late working, an expression he had seen often when Luhan was younger. And he didn’t look as tall. He looked almost as weak as the morning glory flowers when the sun had gone down. Sehun reached up and grabbed the back of

Chanyeol’s head, bringing him down the few centimeters between their heights to press their lips roughly together. The kiss only lasted a few seconds, but Sehun wished almost instantly he could muster the energy to do it again.

 

“I love you, too, but what do these words mean when you can so easily leave me to another man who will make me pliable to him even if I don’t want to.”

 

Chanyeol looked at him stunned for a few seconds until a flush spread on his cheeks. “You love me too?”

 

“It makes no sense, but yes, if that is what you call this feeling of hating you and wanting you, hearing your voice in my sleep.”

 

Suddenly Chanyeol was wrapped around him, arms around Sehun’s shoulders and face in Sehun’s neck and Sehun wanted to melt into the warmth of the other’s body. He lifted his hands and placed them on Chanyeol’s hips, pressing down, and for a second he remembered their first time. He turned his head and buried his nose into the orange brown locks of the other’s hair. He smelled of chemicals, like the medic’s office, and the garden of plants from the Resort Area he kept.

 

“If I’d known, I wouldn’t have left you alone, but I had to help that man. I’ve seen that happen before, the convulsions, the green, and the months of what seem like simple colds or indigestion. My mother wasn’t the only one that refused to eat those berries.”

 

Sehun pulled away and looked at Chanyeol quizzically. “What do you mean?”

 

Chanyeol ran a hand through his hair and Sehun saw the dark bags under his eyes as if Chanyeol had been punched as well. Indeed, he must have been over working these past couple months.

 

“The virus that my mother died of, it’s come here to the Upper Mansion.”

 

Sehun remembered Chanyeol telling him about his parent’s deaths. “How?”

 

Guilt was written all over Chanyeol’s face. “Me. I was born while my mother was infected with the virus. I would have died from it, too, but the natives put the berries in my milk and gave me teas made from it and salves until I was basically immuned…but I still carried it. Most natives carry it. The mosquitoes there brought it from the blood of the old cities when pollution reigned hard, but they eat those berries so naturally that negates it.”

 

“Then how did anyone get it here? Did the bugs come?”

 

Chanyeol shook his head. “No, those bugs are long gone. It seems there was barely any use for those creatures and now they’re easily exterminable. Eventually the virus will die, but that’s still many generations left. I brought it here and I gave it to you and you gave it to the Chief of Monetary Distribution.”

 

Sehun didn’t understand. He went through everything Chanyeol had given him, but other than the berries, there was nothing, and those were supposed to help with the virus.

 

“Blood or sex, Sehun, those are the only two ways it transfers. I got it from my mother; my mother got it from my father who slept with many native women. My mother wouldn’t eat the berries and so the virus didn’t just lay dormant in us.”

 

“You’re saying because I slept with you, I have the virus in my body as well and then gave it to others?”

Chanyeol nodded.

 

“Then how come I’m not sick?”

 

“Because you ate the berries with me, Sehun. And I’ve been very worried since you haven’t had any in awhile. After about a year, the signs of the virus will start showing up again if you don’t eat any. The virus is actually very slow. It weakens your immune system so you get sick a lot then it slowly erodes your bowels and in the last few days you get convulsions and throw up until…well you know.”

 

How scary. Sehun was honestly terrified. He had slept with the Chief of Monetary Distribution and a few months later he dies…and he had slept with the President and the President’s eldest daughter only a couple months ago…and then he was supposed to marry Jinri.

 

“I’m supposed to marry Jinri,” Sehun said. “And I slept with the president…and his daughter.”

 

Chanyeol sighed. “I’ve thought about that. The president seems to be deteriorating quickly; I don’t think there’s much I can do for him, but the daughter we can help. I don’t have many supplies. I don’t know how many people the Chief of Monetary Distribution slept with after you and how many they slept with and so on. This could be an epidemic soon. I’ve talked to the medics and your father, but no one will listen to me. I only have a plant big enough for a small group of people. I need to go back to the Resort Area, but they won’t let me. They want me to stay here and brainwash me with their ideals.”

 

“This is a big deal isn’t it?” Sehun asked.

 

“It is. If it was just the Uppers, I could probably make an extract and put it in the water supply, but there are all the Lowers, too. When I told the Head of Healing, he threatened me. He said the Lowers weren’t worth healing. He tried to take my plants. I…I have to leave, Sehun.”

 

Sehun’s mind was a whirlwind of chaos. Why had he found love in someone so dangerous? All the Uppers were bound to die and the Lowers, too, with how much sex went around. Sehun couldn’t allow it…everything he knew, even if he hated it, would be gone.

 

“I’m going with you. Whatever the plan, I’m going with you.”

 

Chanyeol smiled that bright morning glory smile at him. “We have to go live in the Lowers for a little while. The way I came in was through the Upper’s gate, but that’s heavily guarded. There has to be another way out, I’m sure the Lowers will know. A lot of people might die until we find it, but I have a plant that I want you to give to your friend…the president’s son. Come to my bed chambers in an hour and I’ll give it to you. Take it to him and give him names of the ones you want protected. I’ll come to your bedroom tonight and then we’ll leave.”

 

Sehun nodded. Leave…he was going to get to leave the Lowers. It was something he had never thought to do, but now it seemed exciting. He wasn’t a son anymore, and this was his transformation year, the year he decided who he wanted to be. Before he could say more, Chanyeol had already left.

 

Sehun stayed in the gardens for a while longer contemplating the situation before leaving as well.

 

He found Chanyeol easily. The man was rushing about his sleeping chambers throwing pillows about and searching through his wardrobe and pulled out a plant. He walked over to Sehun and handed the plant to him.

 

“Take this to the President’s son. He only has to water it once a week. The berries rejuvenate every month as long as he keeps the room it’s in warm and as long as he picks them. There’s more information tucked inside the plant about how to care for it.”

 

“When are we to leave?” Sehun asked.

 

“Someone will bring you a change of clothes later. Sneak down into the kitchens late at night. We’ll leave through the tunnel the Lower servants use. You shouldn’t stay here too long. I have to get to my office before it’s ransacked as well.”

 

Sehun was pushed out of the bedroom and looked up and down the halls of Chanyeol’s chambers unsure of what he was really doing. He walked slowly in the direction of Luhan’s chambers and took in every inch of the Upper’s Mansion walls. In truth, they were quite splendid, golden ornaments decorating every few feet and vases Sehun had never paid enough attention to before to wonder whose hands made them. He had this feeling that he would never see them again.

 

“Sehun!”

 

The voice calling out to him was happily familiar, but Sehun still cussed to himself having to meet anyone, even his supposed fiancé, with the plant held responsible in his hands. He turned slowly though only to see Jinri glowering at him.

 

“Why haven’t you seen me, Sehun? I’m supposed to be your fiancé, we need to discuss how this will work,” Jinri said.

 

Sehun looked around. He spotted a bench by the wall. He moved the plant into one arm then grabbed Jinri’s wrist, pulling her over to it. There was something he would have to fix before he left that night.

 

“Jinri, will you listen to me for a moment?”

 

Jinri’s face suddenly fell in worry. “Is there something bothering you?”

 

“I…I can not marry you, Jinri. Please convince your father to let you marry Jongin instead.”

 

Jinri pulled her hand away. For a second, she looked offended, hurt. Had Sehun not known what love was, the thought she might be heartbroken would have never crossed his mind.

 

“What is this nonsense you’re spreading? I can’t just change my fiance like that.”

 

“After tonight, Jongin will be the better choice.”

 

“I don’t understand what you mean? Jongin decided not to even take a fiancé. That’s why the president was giving his youngest daughter as an option to you.”

 

Sehun turned and looked at the plant. He picked one of the plump green berries and placed it in Jinri’s hand. “Eat this and understand I care for you very much, Jinri, I do, but this won’t work. You’ll be a good wife for someone who has to live like this, but me…I’m done living like this, Jinri. I’ve done my duty and I screwed up big time.”

 

Jinri looked at the berry. “What is this?”

 

“It will keep you from dying before it’s your time. How is your father, Jinri?”

 

The girl looked at Sehun confused. She looked so much like a girl right now even if she was technically a woman. “He has been bedridden for the past few months. Stomach pains plague him. He had a cold last week.”

 

Sehun hadn’t slept with the Secretary since after Chanyeol, but if the Secretary and the Chief of Monetary distribution had shared a bed mate after Sehun, then that meant it was already spreading. “Are there any sons who are sick?”

 

Jinri tilted her head. “Yes, about five. It seems colds have been bad this year.”

 

Sehun wrapped Jinri’s hand tightly around the berry. “Eat this and be healthy, Jinri.”

  
  


He stood before she could say anything to him and headed quickly to Luhan’s chambers. There was no point in trying to take any of this in. Perhaps it would all just fall just like those cities long before.

 

 

**✤**

 

Sehun stood in the tunnels of the Upper’s mansion stretching out the clothing Chanyeol had referred to as a t-shirt to read the characters on the front. Chanyeol had stopped to close one of the many doors they had passed through in the last hour. Sehun didn’t turn to watch the other and he didn’t look around. The first glimpse of the tunnels that the Lower servants used to get to work and back home was enough for him. They were dark and smelled like the wood of the trees in the garden after it rained, but worse. He was glad he wasn’t wearing his good leather shoes since every step he took was accompanied by the sound of something sticky being lifted. His second best pair would probably end up down here, though, since he’d use them to barter a servant into switching shoes with him. These sneakers were oddly comfortable though. The t-shirt made him feel naked, but the jeans were nice and snug and he felt freer than in his slacks and fancy short pants back in the mansion.

 

Chanyeol had come about midnight carrying a large bag and a change of clothes. He was already in his clothes, wearing the undershirt most adults did, but with ratted jeans and shoes Sehun couldn’t identify. After Sehun was dressed, Chanyeol had taken his hand and hurried down to the kitchens all the while looking half scared out of his mind. Maybe it was because Sehun couldn’t really understand the severity of the situation, but he found the look on the older man cute and so stared at Chanyeol their whole way down to the kitchens to keep his own heart calm. It had never occurred to him that the Lower servants went home, but after Chanyeol slipped them a few colored pieces of paper, they pointed toward a door in the back with some directions. And, now they were almost to the end of the

tunnels according to the servant’s directions.

 

The doors had turned into gates at some point during the walk and the tunnel became wetter. Sehun paused at about the eighth door. He closed his eyes and listened around him. He could hear water like he did sometimes when he didn’t quite make it to the bed on party nights, pressed up against the wall or when he was dragged to the bathroom instead. Except, it was louder here, and the creaking that happened every time a faucet was turned on in the mansion was louder and echoed around them. Sehun opened his eyes and looked around. It was as disgusting as the first time, even more so as Sehun could see pieces of paper and unimaginables stuck between the pipes that lined the concrete of the tunnel.

 

There was something else, too, another sound that flowed with the water and thumped against Sehun’s chest. He walked ahead, not waiting for Chanyeol to grab his hand. The next couple gates were wide opened and Sehun walked through them, not waiting for Chanyeol to close them behind. He didn’t see the point in closing them. It wasn’t like there was a key that opened them back up, which Sehun thought made it pointless to have the doors in the first place. It seemed like the Lowers could just come and go as they pleased. The sound was getting louder and Sehun could barely hear Chanyeol calling out to him to wait. It was a hard thump in his chest and it took Sehun a few seconds to realize it was music. It wasn’t the quick and irate strumming of strings and blowing of horns that the Uppers in the Music Department liked to play and experiment with at parties. This sound was created by something Sehun had never heard of. It had the sound of technology.

 

“Sehun!” Chanyeol yelled when he finally caught up, grabbing the other’s hand again.

 

Sehun continued to stare down the tunnel toward where he heard the music from. It was making it hard for him to breath, but the more he listened, the more it seemed he could actually see the music played in colorful lights many meters ahead.

 

“Music,” Sehun said.

 

“Yes,” Chanyeol said. “The Lower said they entered through a club that the Uppers like to sneak into.”

 

“A club?” Sehun asked and turned the Chanyeol.

 

Chanyeol started leading them down the tunnel toward the dancing music of lights. “Yes, we had them in the Resort Area. There was a big meeting on whether we should put one in for the sons and daughters on their transformation year at the resort.”

 

“The Uppers come down here? I’ve never heard of that before,” Sehun said then repeated himself when he realized the music was too loud to hear.

 

Chanyeol nodded. “How else do they hire Lowers to work in the mansion. The Survey Division has a branch that comes here to look over things as well, or so I was told.”

 

Sehun frowned then stopped when he noticed a staircase, the dancing lights bright on them. Chanyeol tugged him up them until they emerged from a backroom in a building. There weren’t any lights in it, but there was a door on the opposite wall where those colored lights were filtering through. Sehun had to cover his eyes when they first walked through it. When he opened them again, he saw waves of people in the middle of a room covered in glitter and not much else. Women and men and people Sehun couldn’t decide if they were women or men. They moved to the heavy beat of the music laughing and perspiring and they looked almost alien to Sehun with the way the lights moved against their bodies. And he felt dizzy and excited and scared.

 

He felt like he had when he’d cum for the first time. Then his father had walked in not five minutes later, and the very next night he was sat in the President’s lap.

 

A hand moved to the back of Sehun’s neck, rubbing it softly, and lips pressed to his ear. “You look overwhelmed.”

 

Sehun turned his head. His lips almost touched Chanyeol’s with the motion and the older looked a bit taken aback. Sehun lifted his eyes to stare at Chanyeol’s wide and waiting.

 

“They look like they’re having sex.”

 

Chanyeol laughed. “I suppose some of them are. This is one way they find their lovers here in the Lower. It’s not the most ideal.”

 

Sehun lifted a hand to his heart, feeling it pump to the beat of the techno music playing. “They look like they’re having fun, but why are the men dancing, too?”

 

Chanyeol adjusted the bag on his back. “Because, here, anyone can dance together.”

 

Dance. It was the middle of the night and they were dancing.

 

Sehun turned to Chanyeol. “Can I ask you to dance with me, Chanyeol?”

 

A warm smile crossed Chanyeol’s face and he leaned down, pecking Sehun’s lips. The action made Sehun flush a bit, his heart beating faster. He had gotten use to the hand holding in the tunnel, but kissing a man without his duty was just as new and exciting as the music in this club.

 

“I thought you’d never ask,” Chanyeol chuckled and tugged Sehun toward the dance floor.

 

Sehun looked at the people around them. Seeing naked people gyrated on each other was something Sehun wasn’t use to, but they weren’t actually having sex and most people didn’t have pleasured faces, they were smiling as they moved their hips and their arms to the song playing and some of them were terrible at it, but they still did it. Sehun remembered a saying Luhan had taught him – making love use to mean enjoying something. Was this making love to music?

 

Chanyeol had already started to dance and Sehun stared at the taller man finding it a bit funny.

 

“You don’t know how to dance, do you?” Sehun asked.

 

Chanyeol shook his head. “Only the natives’ dances, but you don’t know how to dance at all.”

 

Sehun frowned them placed his hands on Chanyeol’s hips and pulled him closer trying to copy the movements of the people around him as he moved against Chanyeol. The taller man gasped and pressed his hands to Sehun’s shoulders as if to push him away.

 

“What are you doing?” Chanyeol asked.

 

“I don’t know dance, but I do know sex and this looks like sex,” Sehun said and rolled his hips.

 

Chanyeol gasped again and Sehun could see a flush on his cheeks, but his eyes didn’t look scared anymore, they hadn’t looked scared since they’d stepped into the club. Sehun started to sway a bit with his hips movements and Chanyeol sighed.

 

“That is true.” He wrapped his arms around Sehun’s neck and leaned his forehead against Sehun’s as he moved with him.

 

Sehun could feel the tension moving out of Chanyeol’s body. They were runaways, they were, in a sense, murderers, and Sehun had a feeling that in that bag were things Chanyeol shouldn’t have, but right now, they were just dancing.

 

The song slowed down and another beat took its place. Sehun assumed it was a new song and pulled away deciding he didn’t like jeans quite as much as he thought as the fabric was rough against his penis that was hot from the friction of dancing. He’d have to get in the habit of wearing underwear again. What did Lower underwear look like?

 

Chanyeol moved away again and grabbed Sehun’s hand leading him out of the club. “We shouldn’t dally so much, the Uppers will know we’re gone soon, and we don’t have time to deal with other problems.”

 

Sehun barely heard Chanyeol as he was in awe once again. Outside the club, everything was even brighter though it

was past midnight. The sky was velvety black and intensified the neon glow of the signs lining the street. There were so many different fonts and a few were even written in old languages that Sehun could recognize, but not understand. And there was more music intermingling with each other, nothing like the music played in the Upper mansion.

 

Chanyeol started down the street and Sehun followed. Everyone was laughing, dressed in bright colors like the wives as they danced and there were no suits until they passed a place where people sat and ate and it was the closest thing Sehun had seen to the Mansion. They passed a couple holding hands and whispering in the same high talk

Sehun used, but there was a slang to it that wasn’t old. It intrigued Sehun.

 

“We should find a place to live for now. I don’t know how long it will take to find a way to the Resort Area before the Uppers decide to use the Lowers as an escape goat for the disease or when they’ll catch up to us.”

 

Sehun nodded. “Do we have to go to the Resort Area?”

 

Chanyeol paused and Sehun could feel him looking at him. “You like it down here, don’t you?”

 

“I’ve never seen it before,” Sehun said. “It’s…so alive.”

 

“To be honest, I’m quite surprised myself. I figured it would be similar to the Resort Area where the natives live, but this is much more technologically advanced. They seem very dependent on the machines we only use for work.”

 

Sehun examined a rainbow sign as they came closer to it with the words ‘Love Hotel’ glowing bright. “I thought it would be gray. I’ve heard the Lowers that first get hired talking excitedly to each other about how excited they are to work there.”

 

Chanyeol hummed. “Perhaps they get paid more for working for the Uppers.”

 

“Paid?” Sehun asked.

 

“That’s right,” Chanyeol said squeezing Sehun’s hand and smiled, “I forgot Uppers don’t get paid. You know about cost, though. The red suit you wore on your last day as a son cost more than the other’s, but you didn’t have to use your money for it. Monetary Distribution controls that. Down here, it’s like the Resort Area. You have to buy things yourself and in order for you to do that, you have to carry something worth what you want to buy. Instead of trading, they carry money, or pieces of cotton paper that takes the place of that worth. You work to earn up the paper and you can trade it for things you need like lights and food and clothes as well as entertainment.”

 

“So that’s what that colored paper you gave to the servant was?” Sehun asked.

 

Chanyeol nodded. “You can also pay for information.”

 

Sehun thought about it. It didn’t make much sense to him. His family’s standing with the President was what got him better clothing and food in the Mansion, though he never had much of a choice of what clothing and food he got, he just knew they were the best.

 

“Oh, it’s the mansion! Look how pretty all the ladies’ dresses are!”

 

Sehun turned hearing a girl’s voice. She was with another girl and they were looking past Sehun and Chanyeol at a huge screen on a tall building. Sehun had never seen a projection screen that big before and he’d only seen a recording a few times before he took on his son duties. It had never been like this. Someone had recorded one of the parties. Women danced together, twirling their beautiful dresses about, laughing and words of grace and beauty and devotion scrolled along the screen. The scene cut to the men and sons drinking together, laughing and more words of praise like honorable and gentile scrolled on the screen. It ended with the words “Beauty and Splendor is found at the Mansion. Work hard and earn a ticket inside.”

 

Sehun’s stomach fell. Certainly there were many beautiful and splendid things in the Uppers’ Mansion, but there was no devotion or honor. Sehun’s skin crawled. It was all lies.

 

“They’re lying,” Sehun said.

 

“Yes,” Chanyeol agreed. “But, that was what I had been told when I was first brought to the Mansion. They brought me there too late, though. Honestly, when I found out what the adults did to you sons, I was disgusted especially with you.”

 

Sehun frowned. “What do you mean? You found me disgusting?”

 

“Not when I saw you, but your father introduced you as the best son. I hadn’t been informed that first night of what that meant, so, though I was interested, I didn’t bring you to my bedroom that time. I was informed by others my age and then you chastised me for it too. So, I did find you disgusting, but I was already interested and I wanted to be accepted. The more I was around you, though, the more I wanted to keep you from everyone else.”

 

Sehun couldn’t help but smile. “I don’t fancy you sleeping with other sons.”

 

Chanyeol tugged Sehun’s wrist and pulled him close suddenly in an embrace. “I love you and I regret ever giving you this disease.”

 

Sehun put his hands on Chanyeol’s hips and pushed him away a bit. “It’s not your fault. I’m the one that slept with another after you. I’m the one that spread it. I was angry. It could have just stayed between us and no one would have known. I would have married Jinri, she knew I had no intention of sleeping with her, and you could have married whoever you wished without sleeping with her as well.”

 

Chanyeol lifted a hand and ruffled Sehun’s hair. “In ten generations, this disease won’t exist anymore. But only if we can give all these lowers those berries and only if the Uppers stop that tradition with the sons.”

 

“Luhan…wants to stop it,” Sehun said.

 

“I know and I pray he will. The President will die soon and that will be Luhan’s chance to change things.” He leaned in and kissed the top of Sehun’s head.

 

“I find such actions strange still,” Sehun admitted.

 

“No one else seems to,” Chanyeol said.

 

Sehun said nothing and started walking again.

 

Money, work, shelter, sickness – he’d never had to worry about those things before. Sehun never worried about anything but his position as a high son and not sleeping with the President again.

  
  


He wanted to worry and he wanted to love.

 

**✤**

 

Sehun slumped against the large cushioned chair in the apartment he and Chanyeol had rented in the Lowers’ city. It had been three months and contrary to Sehun’s original impression of the city, it wasn’t all bright lights and gyrating on dance floors. Chanyeol had managed to string up quite a bit of the Lowers’ currency, enough to put a down payment on the mediocre one bedroom one bathroom apartment and furnish it as they liked. They had even managed a few luxury items before Chanyeol had capped the spending. It wasn’t like Sehun new how to manage money nor did he know how to spend it. When Chanyeol mentioned they would need a steady income to pay the rent for the months they lived here until Chanyeol could get the information he needed, Sehun offered to work. Chanyeol was against it at first, but he wouldn’t have time to search for information if he was working the long hours Sehun now was.

 

He had gotten a job cleaning up night clubs after the long Friday and Saturday nights, and then a second job at the library during weekdays. The jobs were jobs he could hide in, but maybe also help Chanyeol find something. They were risky, too though. Sometimes the clubs partied longer than usual and Sehun had to wait inside for two hours before they cleared up. It was dangerous because he could easily spot out Uppers that sneaked out to the clubs to grope on the Lowers and Sehun had been reluctantly pulled into it when he just sat on the sidelines with a broom and mop. Of course, this wasn’t the Uppers’ Mansion and Sehun wasn’t a son anymore, he could fight back. In the library, he was always afraid he’d come across something he shouldn’t while he restocked books, but the library seemed to only have fiction and how to books. He was always stressed out and tired when he got home, but he made enough for bills and rent and somehow Chanyeol made enough for food doing odd jobs here and there. Tonight was no different.

 

Sehun looked out the third floor window of their apartment where the cushioned chair was placed. The sun had set and the neon lights of the party district of the Lower’s city began to take its place. There were many of those streets, but the majority of the city was apartments and small shops and schools. Sehun had been surprised the first time he’d come across one of the schools. He thought it was a mansion. If Uppers could have lowers than Lowers could have uppers, but when children dressed in similar clothing exited the building after a bell rang, Sehun understood what the building was. He wondered what they learned. Did they learn the same things he had with Jongin?

 

There was a screen in view from the window that played commercials all day and night. The Uppers’ Mansion commercial came on and Sehun reached out for the curtain to cover just enough of the window so the television wasn’t shown. He paused when he moved his hand back. Calluses covered Sehun’s fingers and his neatly trimmed nails were long and chipped. He pressed his hands together and moved them up and down his arms feeling the rough patches. He’d never felt anything like it before, the touch of calluses on soft skin, the satisfaction of realizing you were toughening up from work well done. Sehun had never had to work before. Even studying was less important than making connections.

 

The water from the shower that had been running when Sehun got home stopped. Sehun turned his attention to one of two doors in their apartment (one being their small bedroom and the other the bathroom) and waited for it to open. A few minutes later, Chanyeol appeared toweling his hair with a fuzzy navy bathrobe tied loosely at his hips. Chanyeol lowered the towel from his growing red-brown hair, and wrapped it around his neck before smiling seeing Sehun seated in the chair by the window.

 

“You’re home early,” Chanyeol said.

 

“The clubs are opening early today. There’s a special holiday, some past president’s birthday or something. We never celebrated it in the Uppers.”

 

Chanyeol moved and sat down on the other chair in the room closer to a fireplace boarded up for the approaching summer. “Did you want to go, you like going to the clubs?”

 

Sehun shifted in his seat. “Maybe. Or maybe there’s something else I would prefer to do.”

 

Chanyeol grinned a shy grin covered up by the brightness of his smile. “I guess work was hard even if you got out early.”

 

Sehun held up his hands focusing on the calluses again. “I don’t mind that it’s hard. I’ve never felt the ache of my muscles before or the sting of scrapes on my knees and bruises I have no idea how I got. All the injuries I’ve ever gotten were as a child or because of sex. As long as I didn’t pass out, I knew where every single scrape came from and if I didn’t, I could always figure it out.”

 

Chanyeol frowned. “Couldn’t they at least be gentle with you guys?”

 

Sehun lowered his hands resting them clasped between his knees. “If you want to be treated gently, you’ll never get your family higher on the scale. The higher the adult is, the kinkier they are.”

 

“Kinky?” Chanyeol raised a brow and chuckled. “You’ve been learning new words, Sehun.”

 

Sehun grinned. “I’ve always known words, but I didn’t know they were still used. I know fucking and dick, too.

 

They say it all the time at the clubs.”

 

Chanyeol chuckled and raised a hand to scratch the back of his neck. “Maybe we shouldn’t go to the club then if you’re going to learn that kind of stuff.”

 

“You don’t like me knowing that kind of stuff?” Sehun said. “I don’t think you know much about it, either.”

 

“That’s true,” Chanyeol said. “You’re more experienced than me even now.”

 

“Don’t the girls you get information from hit on you?”

 

“Do they, I never noticed.” Chanyeol unwrapped the towel from his neck and started to wipe down his legs. Sehun’s eyes followed the soft white material as it moved along the long expanse of Chanyeol’s legs and then up to where the bathrobe teasingly shown strong thighs.

 

“Have you gotten any more information?” Sehun asked.

 

“Apparently there is a way to get out of the city without the guards hired by the Uppers knowing, but I haven’t found anyone that knew where it was and no one knows of anyone who’s gone out and come back in.”

 

Sehun frowned. “Is it hopeless?”

 

Chanyeol shook his head, wet hair flying everywhere. “Just because no one knows, doesn’t mean someone hasn’t.

 

They might not have told anyone, or maybe they didn’t return because they didn’t want to.”

 

Sehun nodded eyes going to the skin of Chanyeol’s chest that peaked out beneath the bathrobe. He was sculpted, Sehun was well aware of that. As soon as they had settled down in the Lowers’ city, they had begun to make love again. The first time he had allowed Chanyeol to take back that night he’d lost to the President, but mainly, Sehun took advantage of his growing muscles he got from hours of repeated sweeping and carrying boxes of heavy things he didn’t know the club needed. And dancing. He loved dancing. The fat he had began to accumulate just like other Uppers when they reached their transformation year was turning into the muscles he saw on Chanyeol and he could hold the taller man down on the bed far easier than before.

 

“Jongdae from the wall area, that mechanic, he says he’s on and off lovers with a guy that knew a guy that sold plans of the sewer system underground to the radicals of the city.”

 

“That sounds confusing.”

 

Chanyeol laughed and crossed his legs. Sehun shifted on his own seat.

 

“Chanyeol,” he said, eyes getting dark as the neon signs outside brightened, the only lights casting into their apartment now.

 

“Yes?” Chanyeol answered.

 

“I think I know of something I’d much rather do besides clubbing.”

  
  


Chanyeol peaked up, body totally lax in his chair. “Yes?”

 

Sehun patted his lap. “Come here, Chanyeol.”

 

The taller man cocked his head then stood and made his way over to Sehun with long strides. He lowered himself slowly onto Sehun’s lap, long legs bent on both sides of Sehun’s narrow hips. He held himself steady with his hands on the back of Sehun’s chair, looking down with large glittering eyes. Sehun lifted a hand up and pushed back the growing wet locks of the elder’s hair to see more of his face, watching the soft features that he’d seen harden when it came down to business in an attractive way.

 

“Smile, Chanyeol,” Sehun said, hand still on Chanyeol’s forehead.

 

The elder obeyed, all those pearly white teeth lighting up Sehun’s chest more than even the joy of the drumming music in the clubs could. Chanyeol’s smile made him feel free and he felt his own joining it.

 

Chanyeol’s smile widened. “I like it when you smile, it’s cute.”

 

Sehun could feel his own eyes going into crescents as his smile grew in response. “I only smile because you’re smiling.” He leaned up and pecked Chanyeol’s lips, feeling the blush his words caused the elder even in their sweet plushness.

 

“Sehun,” Chanyeol moaned softly, in that deep voice.

 

Sehun moved his hands to Chanyeol’s thighs, rubbing them up and down, fingertips pushing under the edge of the bathrobe. He watched his hands move, pressing their calloused tips into his lover’s skin. Chanyeol’s soft moans continued like the quiet base of a ballad and he shifted on top of Sehun. Sehun moved his attention to the tip of Chanyeol’s member peaking out of his bathrobe. He moved one hand to it and started to stroke it and looked up.

 

“Does it feel good, Chanyeol?”

 

Chanyeol looked down with blurry eyes. “Of course it does.”

 

“My hands have hardened. Do they steal feel good against your skin?”

 

Chanyeol moaned loudly when Sehun pressed his thumb against Chanyeol’s tip. “Yes…yes…It’s just more friction, Sehun.”

 

Sehun moved his hand away ignoring the whine of protest Chanyeol gave in return. He pushed Chanyeol’s bathrobe aside, the loose tie coming undone easily, and began running his hands up and down the lines of light muscle pressed against Chanyeol’s soft skin. He leaned in and started to kiss it, sucking spots that had faded since the last time he’d taken the time to look at Chanyeol’s body.

 

“I’ll be like this someday.”

 

“Huh?” Chanyeol asked dumbly, eyes a flutter with pleasure.

 

“I’ll have muscles like you, maybe more. Maybe I’ll grow taller than you. I’ll get stronger and I’ll learn more of the things you know and I’ll be the one taking you to places you never knew existed.”

 

“Sehun you don’t have to…ah.”

 

Sehun’s hands moved to Chanyeol’s back, raking uneven fingernails softly down it and then taking prize on

Chanyeol’s bottom, kneading the skin. He moved up on Chanyeol’s chest and found a bud, suckling it. He could feel Chanyeol’s low moans reverberating against his lips and through his body building into a hot pressure at his groin.

 

He moved away and started to undo his pants, but felt Chanyeol’s hand move from behind his head to his crotch to do it himself. Sehun leaned back and watched the elder with fiery eyes.

 

“And in return, I’ll teach you the things I know, Chanyeol.”

 

Chanyeol looked up at him, innocent at first before his large eyes became hooded with a learned understanding and he began to stroke Sehun, rolling his head slightly to the side.

 

“Teach me everything, Sehun, and I’ll turn it into love making.”

 

Sehun leaned in quickly and planted his mouth on Chanyeol’s neck. He sucked spots wanting to leave marks all over the elder’s skin. Sehun was never sure where Chanyeol managed to find himself when Sehun wasn’t home, but he wanted anyone that saw Chanyeol to know that he was spoken for.

 

It had taken him a while to fully understand how Luhan must have felt about Jongin and vise versa. This was the reason why they never took another man to bed and even were reluctant to take their own wives. As Sehun found lube and began to slick his fingers up, Chanyeol balanced on the chair with his hands on Sehun’s shoulders and butt sticking out because there was no way Sehun was letting Chanyeol up from this chair to get properly situated on the bed (they could continue there next), he began to wonder about those he left behind in the Upper’s mansion. He didn’t wonder about the President or his daughters and he didn’t wonder about his own family, but he did often wonder about his friends. Did Luhan and Jongin take sons to their rooms? They probably just fed them cake and kissed their foreheads. Did Jongin marry Jinri? Did Jinri do her job as a wife? He thought they would make a pretty child, or maybe the child would be Luhan’s.

 

Sehun was taken out of his reverie by Chanyeol kissing him in a sudden rush of pleasure when Sehun added a third finger. He quickly kissed back, thoughts numbing and being replaced with images of what Chanyeol would look like once they were in the middle of lovemaking. Tongues danced together and Chanyeol shifted on Sehun’s lap. He positioned over Sehun’s member and Sehun held the elder’s hips as he slowly lowered down. Sehun let out a loud moan feeling the heat encase him and tried his hardest to stay still. He was still so much more use to being in the other’s position from his years doing his duty. Chanyeol’s body was a bit heavy on his and it was cramped now on the chair pressed so close together, but the warmth of the other’s body bleeding into his own was comforting. When

Chanyeol’s breathing evened out, Sehun began to move.

 

“Sehun, Sehun,” Chanyeol chanted low in his ear, arms wrapped around his neck as he let Sehun move first, pushing up into Chanyeol not getting as deep as either of them would like.

 

Sehun turned his head and kissed along Chanyeol’s ear, hands roaming up and down his back. Chanyeol moved himself away and returned his hands to the back of the chair to get his tall frame into a position to begin moving his hips up and down on Sehun’s shaft. The edges of his hair, still damp from the shower, caressed Sehun’s face when he looked up and managed to catch Chanyeol’s lips in a kiss as they both finally got the friction and depth they wanted. Sehun held tight to Chanyeol’s hips, fingers pressing here and there trying to find new points of pleasure on the others’ body. A few months wasn’t long enough to know every inch of it.

 

Sehun doubted even a lifetime would be enough to have kissed every inch of skin.

 

Chanyeol was a moaning mess on his lap. The low octave of his noises was like a sultry song seducing Sehun’s soul.

 

He wished he knew more about music to classify it exactly. Perhaps he would try to learn, but it wasn’t like he was much better at keeping quiet. The walls of their apartment were thin, but there were many young people in the complex and he doubted anyone would complain, at least they hadn’t so far.

 

“I’m burning, Sehun,” Chanyeol said, lips feverantly finding places on Sehun’s face and neck and shoulder to kiss as he worked himself into a frenzy on top of Sehun.

 

Sehun rolled his hips and earned a rumble of moans from Chanyeol. “I’m close, too.”

 

Seconds passed of just Chanyeol pushing himself up and down, the chair creaking slightly with the movement, on Sehun’s shaft while the younger swiveled his hips and held on, watching with his head tilted, resting on the back of the seat, Chanyeol’s tall form in pleasure. He was completely flushed when he came. Chanyeol threw his head back and groaned Sehun’s name, semen shooting onto Sehun’s work shirt and Chanyeol’s own stomach. Sehun thrust up, bouncing Chanyeol with the last bit of his strength, before coming as well.

 

After a few seconds he could feel his cum leaking back out. He pressed on Chanyeol’s hips when the elder seemed to have regained himself and Chanyeol stood. He took Sehun’s hand and they headed into the bedroom and for another hour, they spent this holiday Sehun had never heard of making love again. And, when they were spent,

Chanyeol wrapped all around Sehun’s body already asleep, Sehun remembered that Lower men could marry. He turned to Chanyeol and pushed some of his hair back, damp now by sweat, and wondered, if they saved this city, could they come back and marry?

 

**✤**

 

The Lowers’ night life was Sehun’s dream world. Unlike the Uppers’ mansion when even on nights with no party he was often forced to perform his son duties, in the city surrounded by pulsing bodies on the dance floor and in the streets, Sehun felt safe. It was a strange realization he came to once during a five minute power outage ( that Chanyeol’s Lower friends said happened every few months) when the bodies around him at the club he’d pulled Chanyeol to continued to dance even without the electronic music for a whole minute more. Chanyeol had found the outage odd, but Sehun wasn’t in the mind to think how his lover often did. Everything was still so new to him. He still didn’t completely understand doubt, only wonder. Bodies touching against his, people flirting with him just to get a rise out of making someone happy, kisses from co-workers stolen at the doorstep to his apartment and never to be talked about again when they saw him covered in Chanyeol’s marks up to his chin the next day—they were all a wonder to him. No one asked for more than Sehun was willing to give. He was in love with Chanyeol and didn’t have to pretend he wasn’t, didn’t have to go with every older man that offered him their arm. Sehun learned what gush meant when asked about said marks. He quickly learned he could read anything he wanted in the library (not that there was much intellectual material in the public library), but there were stories. Sehun had only heard these things called fairytales and folklore after becoming a son, that first year. They seemed silly then. Why was there a reason to dream of being a princess or a knight when you were already an Upper? He learned what freedom meant.

And he understood what it felt like not to fear the President every night.

 

Sehun brought Chanyeol to a club again. It was a new one he had been assigned to clean the previous weekend. Chanyeol’s mechanic friend agreed it was a good place both for fun and for information. It miffed Sehun that Chanyeol often only came for information, but Sehun understood the need, or at least he could understand this wasn’t playtime even if Sehun felt the childish joy he had been missing since he was twelve pretending to be a Lower. The lights had gone out again the day before so Sehun felt it was safe to go about town. Chanyeol agreed with promises to dance with Sehun until the younger was tired before collecting information. The problem was, Sehun didn’t tire easily and Chanyeol knew that well from their bedroom activities. Even if Sehun took a submissive approach, which was happening less and less as the constant motion of sweeping and reaching grew his strength, it was Chanyeol that passed out first and awoken swore. And, Sehun admitted with amusement after the first three months living in the city, Chanyeol wasn’t the best dancer.

 

Information gathering would happen when Chanyeol couldn’t dance anymore.

 

It was past midnight when Chanyeol, soaked in sweat, pulled Sehun out of the middle of the pulsing bodies to the bar. Sehun ordered water and a sweet champagne (he doubted he would ever lose the taste for the only comfort he had had for seven years of his life, the worse seven years). He sipped his drink as he watched Chanyeol drown his, dribbles falling down his chin and into the crevices of the muscles of his neck. Sehun resisted the urge to lean in and lick the water up, not that anyone would really mind at the bar, but he resisted either way for the sake of Chanyeol’s overwhelmed sanity. He would much rather lick up that wine from Chanyeol’s body he kept mentioning the natives making from those berries they needed to get. It seemed like a perfectly fun way to stay healthy. Perhaps he would suggest it to the perverted minded Uppers if they insisted on keeping with the son tradition.

 

Sehun looked around the club. There was a good song being played and Sehun tapped his foot along to it. The music still amazed him. He was so use to not taking part in it, just background noise and something for the girls and women to enjoy. There was someone in the crowd who seemed to have everyone’s attention when he danced, but Sehun could barely see their flailing arms through the heads of the crowd around them so turned his attention away.

Chanyeol was still sitting beside him, but he looked busy in thought. Sehun watched his eyebrows furrow and lips pout before he took another sip of water. He reached a hand out and slowly rubbed the back of Chanyeol’s neck, something the elder often did when Sehun came back from work to relax him. He wanted to relax Chanyeol and see him smile that morning glory smile at him. It had been a week since he’d seen it. Chanyeol leaned in to the touch and closed his eyes. Sehun moved in and pressed his lips in a chaste kiss to the other’s feeling a slight grin on

 

Chanyeol’s lips. When he moved away, he felt frozen.

 

Someone was watching them.

 

Sehun slowly moved his hand from Chanyeol’s neck down his back, spelling out what he feared. Chanyeol’s eyes popped open when he realized what Sehun was writing. He lifted his glass and finished the water then stood. Sehun didn’t bother with his glass and quickly took Chanyeol’s hand.

 

It wasn’t the first time, but probably the closest time they had felt like they were caught. It happened quite often after the first three months for Sehun to see men in Upper suits walking around at night, but Sehun was always in a shop or far across the street. He had never felt their eyes on him before.

 

Chanyeol acted as if he was a bit drunk, bumping into Sehun every few seconds and after a while, Sehun moved his hand from Chanyeol’s to wrap around his waist and let the taller man bury his face into his neck the best he could. They couldn’t walk fast, but they had the advantage of knowing where they were going and how to maneuver the crowd. They went to what Sehun had learned was called a ‘Love Hotel’, a place to go to have sex when you didn’t have privacy at home. They didn’t get a room; they just walked right on in and into the elevator. It was a strategy they had. Every night after the clubs, they walked around a love hotel then left separately back home.

 

Sehun could still feel the eyes on him when they entered. They walked around a few floors and then Sehun insisted Chanyeol leave first, go collect information he had planned on getting while Sehun continued walking around. He went to the lobby and looked at the vending machines where things of kinks and protection were placed. Sehun found them odd so it wasn’t hard to fake an interest in them. There was no ‘protection’ in the Uppers as far as Sehun knew. He had assumed women only got pregnant occasionally and had been very surprised to learn that wasn’t the case. Chanyeol had laughed at him for a week about it until Sehun pushed him down and used a few methods he’d seen in old clips Luhan had found and showed him and Jongin when they were learning about words associated with animals.

 

When it seemed the men had decided they were not who they had thought they were, Sehun headed home with a few of the items from the vending machine in his pocket. He hadn’t expected Chanyeol to be back yet, which he wasn’t, but there was someone standing at the door to their apartment, hand up to knock against the door, a hand Sehun recognized from seeing on the dance floor earlier, and if he thought about it, a hand he should have recognized seeing it pressed to the pale skin of his best friend for most of his life.

 

“Jongin,” Sehun said and approached the figure.

 

Slowly, they turned around and smiled at Sehun, eyes seeming drained and dark. “Hi Sehun.”

 

Sehun looked around the apartment, but no one was there. He fished out his keys and quickly ushered Jongin in. He flipped the light switch of the small apartment and took a better look at his friend. Jongin was wearing clothes typical of the Lowers, but he had a bag swung on his shoulder that looked stuffed probably with the suits the Uppers wore. He moved to his favorite chair by the window and gestured Jongin sit on the other one. Jongin sat stiffly, looking around with suspicious eyes. Sehun was more surprised with the fact he wasn’t surprised to see Jongin here. It had been almost a year since their transformation year began and that night was the last time he had properly seen Jongin. He hadn’t been there when Sehun met with Luhan about the plant, but whether this was a coincidence, a message of good intention, or a trick to pull Sehun and Chanyeol back to the Mansion, Sehun kept himself from embracing his friend.

 

“You’re in the city,” Sehun said.

 

“So are you,” Jongin replied, “I’m sure you know it’s not odd for us on our transformation year to sneak out here by now.”

 

That was true. Sehun had seen many sons from their year about, but none he could name by face. “Is that what you’re doing here, rebelling?”

 

A smirk tugged on Jongin’s lips, the kind that always made Luhan weak and Sehun want to punch him. “Yes, but not as you are thinking of it. I’m not rebelling against the cage they call the Upper mansion, but the cage they call our government. You and Chief Park are quite the name in the inner circle of men. Anyone that doesn’t have to know doesn’t know you’ve disappeared, but there is still a great stir.”

 

“I would think so. My father must be the most disturbed by the incident. All his connections have disappeared.”

 

“That’s the lease of your father’s worries, Sehun,” Jongin said. “He’s been demoted to a lower Upper. Everyone in his department is in a ruckus because of it and Chanyeol. They don’t know what to do about any of this.”

 

“Like a bunch of chickens with their heads cut off,” Sehun said only to have Jongin look at him confused. “It’s a saying I’ve learned.”

 

“Yes well, chickens without heads would be a lot more useful than they are. Luhan’s on the verge of just eliminating the whole lot of them and everything that has to do with the Resort Area.”

 

“Luhan’s already in charge?” Sehun asked.

 

Jongin looked at Sehun and he could see that darkness there again. “He’s dead. The president is dead. They won’t announce it for another month.”

 

Sehun blinked. The president was dead? “When did he die?”

 

“A couple months ago.”

 

The day Sehun finally felt free. All because the only man he’d ever feared was dead. He sighed. “How is Luhan doing?”

 

“He’s fine. I’m sure there’s a part of him that wants to mourn, but there’s no time for that. Both his sisters aren’t taking it well. I think the elder one might be pregnant, but she can’t go around with her ‘father’s’ child. She’s very distraught about going to the medic.”

 

Sehun’s stomach twisted. Was it possible that was his child? He didn’t think so; it had been much too long. “And Jinri? Is she with child?”

 

Jongin flushed and looked away. “It’s too early to know that sort of thing, Sehun. She makes a good wife, though. She misses you.”

 

“So you two have married?”

 

Jongin nodded. “As soon as we could. Her father was most ecstatic to have your name wiped off from her.”

 

Sehun smiled. “I miss her, too.”

 

“But, you don’t regret it? You seem stronger, more weary, but stronger, Sehun. Love does that.”

 

Sehun laughed. “I think it’s all the work I’ve been doing, but, yes, love would do that, too, I suppose, you would know, you’ve been in love much longer than I have.”

 

Jongin smiled. “Yes I have since very young and I’ll do anything Luhan asks of me.”

 

The apartment door creaked. “Which is why you’re here, isn’t it?”

 

Sehun jumped hearing Chanyeol’s voice and turned to see the man standing there with a guarded look at Jongin. “You brought watchers with you.”

 

Jongin frowned. “They shouldn’t have been here, but I did notice them around. I tried my best to appear just as any other son in his transformation year would sneaking out. I didn’t plan for you two to be at the same club. I apologize if they’ve caused you trouble.”

 

Chanyeol moved to stand behind Sehun’s chair. “So the president is dead? He lasted longer than I would have guessed.”

 

Jongin tapped his fingers against his lips. “Luhan tried feeding him those berries. I told him to stop or there wouldn’t be enough for us three and his sisters. He’s attempting to grow a second plant, but it’s difficult to keep it hidden from the watchers even as the new President.”

 

“So he’s gotten the position?” Sehun asked.

 

“There was never a doubt he wouldn’t,” Jongin said. “His great grandfather was the President, then his great uncle, his father, and now him. It’s not a monarchy, but it is use to being one.”

 

“You have a message to relay then?” Chanyeol asked.

 

“Yes, but only to you, Chief Park. I have to say it now especially since the watchers are on me. Luhan can only cover up for me once.”

 

“It’s Chanyeol,” Chanyeol corrected, “I doubt I’ll be given that title again.”

 

Jongin stood up and gathered his things, heading to the door. He looked back and bowed his head to Sehun. “It was good to see you Sehun. I’ll relay to Jinri that you’re happy and describe what you look like when you’re in love to

Luhan. He always wondered what expression you must have.”

 

Sehun chuckled and watched Chanyeol lead Jongin out. He glanced out the window when the door was shut behind them and watched as neon signs began to go out. Soon he would be able to see light blue and pink over the wall that separated the city from the rest of the world.

 

The world.

 

Sehun wondered how big it was. How far away was the Resort Area? What was beyond it? Where there other people like the ones here in these walls with technology and a struggling government of fake freedom and lies?

 

Would he see a hippopotamus and the peacocks beautiful feathers?

 

Chanyeol walked back in a few minutes later and took his chair back. Sehun could feel him staring at him, but he was busy watching two people in the love hotel across the street. They looked familiar, two men he had seen getting engaged at a club once.

 

“Sehun.”

 

He turned at the call of his name and looked at Chanyeol. There was deep anticipation in the elder’s large eyes. It wasn’t excitement or fear. He leaned forward.

 

“I know how to get out.”

 

Sehun’s heart started to thump hard against his chest. “Chanyeol?”

 

“There are people outside these walls, not just the natives from the Resort Area. They grow our food and come once a month just outside our wall to drop it all off. They trade with us. That’s where all the Lowers go when they leave, and they don’t come back because they don’t want to.”

 

“How do we leave?” Sehun asked.

 

“Next month when they come, we’ll use the underground systems. There’ll be a power outage for an hour in which we can all escape. Until then, we have to get as many Lowers to escape with us as we can. I know where the Resort Area is, but we’ll need enough people to over power the ones still loyal to the Mansion in the area and there aren’t many.”

 

“It seems like a lot of work,” Sehun said and stood, walking over to Chanyeol.

 

Chanyeol looked up at Sehun, eyes going from anticipation to sadness. “I’m sorry, Sehun. I never meant to start this.”

 

Sehun reached out a hand and lifted Chanyeol’s face. He leaned down and pressed his lips to the other’s with determination and pulled back only when Chanyeol was left breathless.

 

“You may not have meant to, but I’m glad you did.”

 

**✤**

 

Two thousand names were scrawled through a small notebook and Sehun was sure not all of them would show up. He scanned through them and picked up a pen to cross one out. She had fallen right in front of him. Even though he had only seen it once, Sehun could tell it was the virus. She fell on the dance floor and a commotion to evacuate persisted while the watchers moved in on her. It should’ve been obvious she wouldn’t make it since Sehun had been the one to recruit her – raped by Uppers from his own transformation year. What was the percentage that those Uppers had been hunted by the Chief of Monetary Distribution after Sehun slept with him? Still, one thousand nine hundred and ninety-nine was still more than they needed to take over the Resort Area according to Chanyeol.

 

A letter had come, a letter from the reigning President—Luhan. There had been a week long celebration for him in the Lowers’ city. They still didn’t know his father had died. They still didn’t know about the Virus spreading. The Lowers were just excited to have a promising young _handsome_ leader. Too bad he was already married. How about a mistress? Too bad he already had one in the form of a man, Sehun thought. In the midst of the festivities, the letter had been slipped to him. It read that the mansion was in chaos. The power outages that had become more frequent and longer was because of experiments. They would perform a big one tonight on the virus, and while they did, Chanyeol and Sehun and the one thousand nine hundred and ninety-nine Lowers would escape.

 

“What are you doing?” Chanyeol asked coming out of their bedroom.

 

“Marking off names.”

 

Chanyeol sighed and came up behind Sehun clasping a hand on his shoulder. “I’m sorry your last night dancing ended up like that.”

 

Sehun took Chanyeol’s hand and kissed it. “You can just ask me to dance when we get to the Resort Area.”

 

Chanyeol smiled at him, a genuine beam that Sehun had gotten to see these past few days. “Of course.”

 

Sehun went over and adjusted the duffle bags by the door. “When do we head out?”

 

“As soon as the lights go out. We should probably go outside before then.”

 

“How are we going to meet Luhan and Jongin? They wanted to see us off.”

 

Chanyeol looked nervous. “You trust them, but I haven’t known them quite as long.”

 

Sehun frowned. “Chanyeol, they—”

 

Chanyeol cut him off. “That’s why only we will meet with them. I gave Jongdae a Native’s check with a large sum and a map. He’s leading the larger groups there and the smaller groups will come on their own. Lots of them will get stopped, but at least the whole lot won’t get caught like they would if we brought them to meet Jongin and Luhan. It could be a trap.”

 

Sehun nodded. A large creak sounded across the city. He grabbed Chanyeol’s hand and a bag. “It’s time, Chanyeol.”

 

Five minutes down the block and the tale tail whirling started then the lights went out. Sehun took the lead knowing his way better down the main streets of the city. The watchers would be in the back alleys and it was brighter on the main streets were more people would be walking. They had to keep their flashlights for the tunnels. Sehun caught a glance of Jongdae leading a ‘drunken’ party toward the underground system, probably the third and last of the day.

 

They didn’t make eye contact with him.

 

When they got to the club district near the wall separating them from the mansion, Chanyeol took the lead. They went through the alley to avoid the watchers that were no doubt doubled since Jongin had snuck out. It was a risk to do this today, but wait any longer and the virus would be viral. They could still stop it now. The virus would spread slower in the Lowers who studied things like chastity and safe sex, and fidelity, man or woman, but still, Sehun didn’t know what the virus was like before the mosquitoes had died out. Would it go back to then?

 

The usual club the Lowers that worked in the mansion passed through was crawling with watchers. Chanyeol led Sehun pass the building to one he’d found connected to the same system. He stood guard as Sehun went inside to make sure it was clear, walking through the bodies on the dance floor, until he reached the back rooms and waited for Chanyeol to join him.

 

It was a sewer and Sehun couldn’t help the disgusted look he gave the sticky floor even if he had been cleaning even stickier floors in the club for almost a year. He was glad he had found the shoes from the first time he’d gone underground in the city.

 

“They said they’d meet us halfway,” Chanyeol said and dug out a flashlight after they’d walked quite a ways from the entrance. “There should be a grate soon that will cut into the actual pathway.”

 

“Then we have to come back into the sewer?” Sehun guessed.

 

“The sewer then a water way, that’s the only way out of the city without being seen.”

 

Sehun took the flashlight and continued on. He found the grate easy enough, but trying to get through it was a regretful experience. They emerged into the pathway covered in clumped up and wet dust.

 

“The gates are locked,” Chanyeol announced when they reached one of the many that closed off sections of the Lower workers’ path home.

 

Sehun pulled out two picks from his duffel bag and began to poke around in the lock with them until it clicked opened.

 

“When did you learn that?” Chanyeol asked.

 

“I’ve always known how to pick locks. The adults like to lock you in their rooms sometimes and keep you for themselves. I’ve just never had to use it in front of you before.”

 

Chanyeol came forward and patted Sehun’s hair. “Sorry.”

 

Sehun wasn’t sure what he was apologizing for, but he followed Chanyeol the rest of the way, stopping only to quickly unlock the gates. They all seemed to have the same key and he quickly got a hang of exactly where the picks should go.

 

“Sehun, turn off the flashlight,” Chanyeol said.

 

He flicked it off and moved closer to Chanyeol. They were just a few feet from another gate. He squinted in the dim light of the pathway trying to see if there was someone there. A light started coming into view and Sehun could hear footsteps with it. Two figures walked up to the gate and Sehun took cautious steps closer.

 

“It’s Luhan,” he said quietly to Chanyeol, “and Jongin.”

 

“Just them?” Chanyeol asked.

 

“Yeah.”

 

“Don’t open the gate for now.”

 

They moved up to the gate. A smile started to spread across Luhan’s face seeing them. He looked tired.

 

“You came,” Luhan said. His voice sounded hoarse, too.

 

“Yeah. What did you want to talk to us about?” Sehun asked. He could feel Chanyeol standing cautiously behind him.

 

“I just…wanted to see you, Sehun. Are you happy? With him, I mean.”

 

Sehun glanced back at Chanyeol then smiled at Luhan. “Of course. I hated it in the mansion you know.”

 

“I do,” Luhan said. “I hope you’re happy wherever you guys end up. I have something for you. Jongin.”

 

The other boy pulled out a paper. Chanyeol started reaching out for it, but Jongin held it back.

 

“Luhan?” Sehun asked.

 

Luhan gave him a sad smile. “I’m sorry, Sehun, but I’m going to need you to promise me something first.”

 

“Sehun, we should go,” Chanyeol said. There was a frown on his face.

 

Sehun held up a hand and held his lover’s arm. “Wait. What is it you want, Luhan?”

 

The new president turned to Jongin. “You say it.”

 

“Jinri’s pregnant.”

 

“Congratulations,” Sehun said. He thought Jinri would make a lovely mother, he always had. He was suddenly saddened he hadn’t gotten to see his female friend before he left.

 

“Thank you, but we would thank you more if you promised us,” Jongin continued. “In two years, comeback to this spot right here and take the child back with you.”

 

Sehun’s eyes widened. “I don’t understand.”

 

Chanyeol moved closer to the gate. “You want us to take your child away? Why?”

 

Luhan spoke up. “Because the child is precious. I can’t allow it to grow up here. If by chance this city falls, I can at least make sure it’s safe. It is the only child I’ll be able to make sure that’s one hundred percent free from this virus.”

 

“If it’s a daughter, it should be fine,” Sehun said.

 

“I doubt that for long,” Luhan said. “Many sons have died. They’re talking about having the daughters take on the duty as well. They’re talking about raiding the Lowers. I can only keep them at bay for ten years if there isn’t a cure then I’ll be overthrown.”

 

Sehun glanced at Chanyeol.

 

“It’s dangerous, Sehun,” Chanyeol said. “We can’t come back here.”

 

Sehun frowned. “We can for a child. We can for _their_ child.”

 

Chanyeol sighed. “Then we’ll have to make sure we’ve gotten a plan set up for curing this city.”

 

“Thank you,” Luhan said.

 

Jongin reached out through the gate with the paper. “Here, it’s a map showing where the water purifying plant that gives us our water is. You might be able to sneak around it and get the juice of those fruits into it, but I would suggest something like a treaty with those people that deliver food here.”

 

Chanyeol nodded and took the paper. “I think I understand where you’re going, make jams and what not with the berries and sell it to the city.”

 

“Sehun,” Luhan said and reached a hand out.

 

Sehun took it and held it stiffly. He could feel calluses on Luhan’s hand as well probably from signing documents after documents and taking care of the plant they’d given him.

 

“My dear friend, be safe, use the words I taught you wisely,” he said and grinned.

  
  


Sehun grinned back. “Thank you, I will.”

 

Chanyeol grabbed Sehun’s hand, bowed to the current President and Jongin and then they turned and started back.

 

Sehun looked over his shoulder for as long as he could, but Luhan and Jongin had already started off the other way.

 

They didn’t bother locking all the gates behind them, just a couple here and there until they got back to the sewer.

 

Chanyeol led the way to the water way they’d have to take to meet the traders that brought the food to the city. It was just as Sehun climbed the ladder up to the water way that he spoke up.

 

“I’ve never raised a child before.”

 

Chanyeol helped pull him up and held his hand as they started toward the grate that led outside the wall. “I’ve played with the children at the Resort Area. There’s plenty of people there that will help us.”

 

“Really?” Sehun asked. “I never thought I’d have a child that was mine. I had no interest in watching my son be devoured like that every night.”

 

Chanyeol pulled him closer. Sehun could see moonlight filtering into the waterway and long shadows up ahead.

 

“You don’t have to worry about that anymore, Sehun. For now,” Chanyeol said just as Jongdae and some of the Lowers they’d gathered came into view up ahead headed out of the waterway as well, voice filtering down from above like auctioneers Sehun had seen studying with Luhan, “we have a cure to raise.”

 

 


End file.
